


the long way home

by The_inconsequential



Series: the pathfinder and her family [1]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst, Attempted Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, Lesbian, non canonical character awakening
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2019-06-30 23:44:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 47
Words: 84,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15762192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_inconsequential/pseuds/The_inconsequential
Summary: could it get any worse? yes. but with the help of a special someone it could always get better.





	1. departure, arrival and surprise survival

**Author's Note:**

> this chapter is not representative of the whole work, the first few chapters are far to detailed and slow for me but after the first few chapters i start to gain my footing.  
> please bear with me :)

The shuttle hummed quietly as it made its way towards the newly completed Ark “Hyperion”. This would be Sara’s new home for the next 600 years though she wouldn’t be awake to take it all in. it was all going so well, something had to put a dampener on the special time. 

Sara’s mother had been suffering from a disease called AEND and though while she was fighting it, she passed away just before Sara went into stasis. She couldn’t think of anything worse, the same thoughts flashed in her mind again and again before she was put under; “I love you” and “the things I never got to say…”.

She didn’t have too much time to mourn though as before she knew it she went into stasis. The pods where big enough to hold one person and froze them physically and put them into deep sleep, this was the only way that they were getting to Andromeda. That and the skilled captain Dunn, she would have to get them there safely. 

As the Ark travelled through dark space it was eerily quiet as the ODSY drive took them at light speed. 20,000 humans and some of the other species were in there too because of the specialties that they had. Was it going to go the way she thought it would? 

After the 600 years had passed things started to pick up, the Ark started to wake up and things got busy. People were taken out of stasis to get things ready for when the other important people were to be woken up. This meant that Ryder would also be up soon. Her pod was taken off the rack and the thawing process began to take effect. Ryder took a sharp breath as her brain caught up with what was actually happening. She sat there for a minute as the medical staff went through the procedure. One of the staff was reading from her file when he mentioned that she way assigned to the pathfinder team. This team would be the ones that went down to the new planets to make sure that they were safe to inhabit. Ryder didn’t thing much of it seeing as though her father Alec Ryder was the pathfinder and her brother Scott was also on the team with her.

When she got onto the medical bed getting her physical done she was asked how she was, she was always one for a laugh so she replied with “I’m alright, I can’t function without my coffee first” this elicited a chuckle from the Asari doctor Lexi T’Perro. Things got wrapped up as Lexi checked to see if Sam’s connection with Sara’s implant was working correctly.

Sam was originally design by Sara’s father Alec in a bid to save his wife Ellen who suffered from AEND. He was unsuccessful in doing so but in turn found s good use in the Andromeda initiative as his quantum computing made everything that little bit easier and quicker. 

When the implant test was done, Sara was given the go ahead to get the bridge to meet her father. But in one swift move, the Ark hit an unknown mass of dark energy in space and proceeded to rattle and shake. The effects the contact through things around the room and turned off the med bay's artificially gravity. Luckily for Sara, her fathers second in command and Sara’s friend Cora floated through the door and turned the gravity back on, sending everything back down in a crash.

Her attention was grabbed when one of the medical staff shouted over to her and informed her that something went wrong with her brother’s revival. To her relief it was only his revival that had taken the damage, she was unable to say anything but instead he let out a long sigh to regain composure. She was told that they would be unable to get her brother out of stasis before they mission began but that they would watch over him and try to get him to wake up himself. 

With this knowledge to calm her down she headed of the bridge with Cora to find out what was going on and what she could d about it. Upon reaching the bridge she was met with a flurry of action as the crew were trying to get everything working again, or to some degree anyway.

Her father walked into the centre of the bridge as they came up on what was supposed to be their new home, a “golden world” they called it but it didn’t look golden. It looked like it had been withering over time.  
Alec began conversing with captain Dunn about what the next course of action would be the right step in rectifying the situation. This conversation started to escalate in heat as the two started to try and prove their point.

Sara wasn’t all there yet, some of her hadn’t woken up yet but she was startled when her father looked to her to try and back up his point, before she could even say anything she let out a short “umm…” as she wasn’t keeping track of what was being said. Captain Dunn gave out in the end and it was her father who was able to make the next move. 

Sara was becoming more and more skeptical of how this was going to go considering what she had just seen but she didn’t have a choice in the end so he had to go with it. 

Her and Cora made her way down to the staging area where they got ready to go out into the unknown. Sara gabbed her helmet and her rifle and now she was able to continue a statement flew over from Cora saying “you should go over and put a hand on the good luck stone for good luck”, Ryder let out a hearty chuckle and tried to say “the good luck what now?”. Cora told her that it was something her father always did.  
With this new “knowledge”? acquired they headed to the hanger where the shuttle way waiting along with the rest of the pathfinder team minus Scott.

She met with the rest of the team: David Fisher, Dusty Kirkland, Andrew Greer, Dr Harry Carlyle and Hayes.  
The shuttle ride down to the planet was going as they had expected it too but when the chop started coming, it came hard and a flash later Sara was falling down the surface with her jump jets malfunctioning, Sam’s flat voice come in through the comms channel telling Sara the information that she already knew, “no shit!” was all she said.

A hard landing and a helmet break later, Sara was on the surface trying to figure out what the hell just happened. “things need to get a lot better, quickly” she thought to herself as she tried to hail the comms for any other of the crew that she came with.

Liam strolls over to her tired but ultimately nonchalantly. They were both in agreement that they needed too find the other if they wanted to survive, fortunately the path they had been faced with was straight and only one way so it was hard to get lost. 

All was going well until first contact happened, they had found one of their teammates but also found creatures that they had never seen before. They had protocol to follow but upon the creatures opened fire it all went out the window and a gunfight ensued. With Sara’s alliance training behind her she was able to dispatch the enemy without too much of a fuss, with adrenaline still pumping they ran over to their injured squad mate to find out what the damage was they found that it was a broken leg so he couldn’t go anyway.  
With this in mind they pushed on further down the path when two flares rose out of the horizon so they headed that way while taking in as much detail as they can about the surroundings. In a nearby cave they found a plant which had seemingly avoided the damage that the rest of the planet suffered. Sara made the proposition that it may actually have only survived because of the cave and not anything else. They also found a small creature in a trap next to the plant and after a quick discussion they came to the conclusion that whatever was happening wasn’t natural and must be happening as a result of the huge tower they saw.  
Moving closer to the flares they found the front end of their shuttle with the flight recorder still intact so they activate it so that they could listen again to what had actually happened. It sounded to them like a lightning strike but something still didn’t sit right.

When they finally got to the location of the flares they found the other shuttle, damaged but still in on piece. They were ambushed by the creatures, this time they came down in a drops ship.  
Knowing what she was doing Sara helped here and her team deal with the threat the best they could considering the circumstances. 

One of the squad mates took a bullet but was able to get their comms back online. With this technology restored they could start thinking of a plan to get them off of this rock. Besides “it couldn’t get any worse is what she had said before she left the Hyperion’s bridge”. Oh, how she regretted it now.  
Sam’s monotone voice came through on the comms informing her that her father was trying to get patched through to her, he told her where he way and what he was doing so that they could get over to him and help him to figure this all out.

When they got there, they discussed what they should do, Ryder revealed her findings to her father to which he replied “good, you’ve been doing your job” and Sara quickly replied “I wouldn’t be doing much good If I didn’t do my job.

One final remark was made from her father telling her that she had made a good start.

There was no avoiding it now, they needed get to the tower and between them was a lot of those creatures they’d fought earlier. What ensued was a slug fest of fighting and shooting, some would consider it almost deafening but the armour they wore helped with dampening the sound of gun fire and explosions. After a grueling hour and a half, they finally got to the top of the tower and right outside of the control room, it was up to Sara, Liam and Cora to defend Alec while he deciphered a strange new language. Sara had guessed that the language he was trying to decipher didn’t belong to the aliens they had been fighting because the two structures were different, the one they fought through was different to the one that they were now on so it was another mystery.

After around five minutes of Sam trying to figure out this strange language, he had deciphered enough to get the door open. Once inside, Alec did something that Sara had never seen her father do. He walked over to the hologram in the center of the room and put out his hand. What happened next was unexplainable and she struggled to find words to say what she was thinking.

A moment passed and in that moment the tower stopped and the sky started to clear from the thunder and the rain. They were proud of themselves for overcoming the problems that had been thrown at them from nowhere but what she didn’t know is that her life was about to change.  
A rush of air and some other gases flooded out of the tower and such speeds that it knocked Alec and Sara off the tower and down a cliff, Sara’s visor smashed again but this time she didn’t have the gel she needed to seal it over like she did the first time. Knowing this her father was about to do the fatherliest thing he had ever done.

He limped over to her as he was also injured, took off his helmet and swapped it to Sara and made her the new pathfinder. Passed that point everything was just fading in and out of focus and darkness. She remembered being on the shuttle going back to the Hyperion and the doctors rushing around to try and save her.

The next thing she knew she was in Sam node on the Hyperion. She was awoken by the sound of Sam’s voice but something seemed different, she answered the AI back but, in that moment, Liam noticed she was up and alerted the others. Liam asked who she was talking with to which she replied Sam but Liam didn’t hear here or Sam.

Cora and Lexi came rushing into the room to see how she was, after a series of questions she asked where her dad was. It hadn’t set in yet so while the other looked at her with disheartened looks Sara look around the room until she saw her dad’s helmet and asked what happened. Cora, Lexi and Liam all looked at her with some kind of deep sadness in their eyes and then it finally hit her. It hit her like a ton of bricks, “dad…”, Cora looked at her for a moment and then said in a quiet tone, “it was his life for yours, and he chose you”. This put Sara into a rush of emotions and questions which the other three answered the best they could. The last question came which was, “Cora, are you the new pathfinder?”. Cora paused for a moment and then returned “no, you are, your father did that before he died”.

Sara didn’t know what to do, what to say or even what to think about all this, she took a deep sigh and whispered to herself “well if this is how it has to be”, Cora overheard this command and said some words of reassurance to the newly assigned pathfinder.

Lexi chimed in and told them all that the pathfinder needs the rest before they get to the nexus, they left Ryder to her thoughts so she could now talk to Sam about what is happening. Sam told her of the private channel he shared with he father. Upon being asked what it was for, Sam replied “it allowed me to get to know him better” in his flat monotone voice, Sara was starting to get used to his voice, she would be hearing a lot more of it.

She was also made aware by Sam the fate of the others of the team with two of them being killed in action and all of the others being reassigned either by request or by order.

When she was ready she made her way to the bridge to meet Dunn, Cora and Liam. She waked slowly, steadily, still feeling the effects of the injuries she received. A brief conversation ensued about Ryder being the new pathfinder. After a while the conversation had dies down and they were all looking out of the bridge waiting to see the nexus so that they could breath a sigh of relief, it was not to be.  
The Nexus was half finished and it looked like there were things missing from the station. Liam stated that that it could be worse, not aware of the backlash he was about to bring up, “how!?” Sara snapped back, “the pathfinders dead, habitat 7 is a bust and the station is only half built, this better be the bottom of it!”. Captain Dunn had one of the members of the bridge to hail the station and request docking clearance but all they got back was a message from the auto response and not an actual person, this only worried Ryder even more.

Dunn was ready to pack it in for a while so she raised her voice and said “well I got us here so were going in”. everyone was feeling the strain of the last days events.


	2. thee nexus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and her team board the nexus, clean up, get her new ship and head off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is still a bit slow for me but it will get better soon.

Upon boarding the Nexus Sara noticed something strange, it was empty although there were supposed to be people running around doing their jobs but there was nobody to be seen. She turned to Cora and Liam, “something seem off to you?”. The other two turned and gave a nod in agreement. 

They went on towards the kiosk that was supposed to be giving out information to the people on the station and began to ask it questions such as the date and where everyone was. It got the date right but because of its programming it couldn’t answer some of the more complicated ones they had to ask. It wasn’t being too helpful before she heard a sound coming from behind some boxes, there was a man working on an electrical panel. The trio attempted to get the workers attention by talking but he only turned around, didn’t say anything. Cora questioned “did he hear us?”. Sara replied with “I think so” before the words come out of his mouth. “did you say Ark? We thought you were all dead”.

“dead?” Cora repeated. “yes, we haven’t heard from anyone in over a year” the worker explained. An awkward silence fell over the four of them as they tried to find the words to say. The silence was broken by a Turian that seemingly came out of nowhere, “names Kiran Kandros, head of Nexus security. I’ll explain more on the way”.  
It was a long day before she even got to the operations section of the nexus, and it was only going to get longer. There was a small issue of the people running the Nexus weren’t happy with the news that Sara was the new pathfinder but there was nothing they could do about it and Ryder knew it.

Ryder went about trying to fix the mess that was the ops center, first it was the sabotage of the electrical panels, then it was the fact that someone had been imprisoned for something he swore he didn’t do and then finally some good news when Kandros gave her the authorization to dispatch Apex teams. Sara just wanted to go to bed but first she needed to go and see Sam in Sam node on the Hyperion to talk about some of the things that Sam could do with Sara’s physiology, such as boosting strength. Sara’s only response was “don’t kill me though”, “that would be akin to killing part of myself”. Sam’s monotone voice informed Ryder of her ship being ready to fly and that she needed to go to the landing zone to get on it. 

Ryder set out a sigh of relief as she know that she would eventually get to whatever her bed would be. But it had to wait, she had to get there first.  
Upon reaching the docking bay she was greeted by Cora who was already waiting for her to get there. “hey Ryder, ready to see your new ship?” she asked excitedly and turned to Sara to see her response. She got only a tired nod of approval.

A few moments later and the ship glided through the clean Nexus air towards the landing pad. The gear extended, and it touched down with such grace that Sara had never seen a ship inhabit before but boy was she happy to see it. Cora quickly gave Ryder the name of the ship before it touched down. “they call her the Tempest, she is the: quickest, lightest and fastest ship of her class, never mind the most advanced one too.”  
Ryder felt a sudden rush of energy as she looked thee ship up and down, thinking of all the possibilities that had just arisen. 

“let’s go and see it!” Ryder exclaimed in a hurry before taking off towards the now stationary ship. She wandered over to the ship with a spring in her step as she couldn’t wait to see what had to offer her.  
As she neared the ramp she saw a Turian telling the workers to get a move on and what they needed to be doing. The surprised Turian spotted the two out of the corner of her eye so she started to introduce herself, “names Nyx, Vetra Nyx. Provisioner, gunner and everything in between. Let’s get on board so we ca get going.”, “you’re coming with us?” Ryder wondered.

Vetra didn’t need to think of and answer and with no hesitation she answered the question with “yes, otherwise Addison won’t let this ship go anywhere”. “any excuse to get her to shut up” Ryder responded much to Vetra’s enjoyment.

Once on board the ship, Vetra began giving Ryder and her second a tour around the ship and introducing them to the team that runs it. First was the ship doctor Lexi T’Perro, they had met before but now they were on the same ship. Then came Gil the mechanic AKA Brodie. The last one to meet on the tour was Suvi Anwar, the science officer and liaison for the Nexus science team. 

There was something different about Suvi, Sara could tell just from looking at her, and she couldn’t stop looking at her. From the moment she saw Suvi to the moment she disappeared behind the door, she followed with her eyes locked on the redheaded Scot. She had gone by with a cheery voice, “welcome aboard Sam, and Ryder of course!”.

After Suvi got to the safety of cover around the door she stopped and asked herself what she was doing, “what was that? Why did you say it like that? You said hi to Sam before the fucking pathfinder”, she was hoping this would not get the better of her.

Cora went on to look around the ship for herself before announcing that she would be setting up shop in the bio lab. 

Vetra and Cora joined Sara on the observation deck while Sara was staring into space, as she snapped back into reality she realized that she wasn’t alone. She coughed to try and break the silence, getting a light chuckle in response from the other two. “this is going to be something…isn’t it?”, “that isn’t even the best part, head to the bridge when you’re ready to go.” Vetra responded.

Sara took a minute to compose herself, she was an introvert at heart and that side of her was yearning for some peace at the end of the day. With this in mind, she went to the bridge.

The doors to the bridge hissed when they opened as they sensed there was somebody nearby, that somebody was the pathfinder. Kallo took this as a que, got up out of his chair and strode over to introduce himself to the new captain, “hello pathfinder, I’m Kallo, I’ll be piloting the ship at you word”, Sara reassured Kallo that she would “keep them out of trouble”, much to Kallo’s appreciation. Kallo led Sara over to the console at the front of the bridge and began showing her how to use it.

All the while Suvi was in her seat to the left of the pathfinder, she fought against herself to keep her head straight and not to stare at the attractive woman to her right but she kept Sara in her peripheral vision so that she could see her. She struggled to keep her thoughts from wondering to where they shouldn’t be, a struggle that got the better of her. The next thing she knows, Sara is trying to get her attention, “earth to Dr Anwar, you in there?”. Suvi couldn’t find the right thing to say as she tripped over her words, “oh, uh, it’s a pleasure to meet you Ryder…”, her internal monologue congratulated herself for not managing to make too much a fool out of herself.

The pathfinder responded with “likewise Dr Anwar, will you be joining us out in the field?” Suvi let out a quiet laugh, “me, out there, with the guns and the danger and whatnot, no chance”. Ryder took this newfound opportunity and see where she could take this. “I could take you out a bit, I know plenty about guns I could teach you a few things and keep you safe” Suvi was flustered, she didn’t know what to say. She was kicking herself for letting this get the better of her, tripping over her words is something she should have left in her teenage years but here she was. “maybe when its calmed down a little bit, besides, I belong here on the bridge”. Sara had heard what the doctor had said but she wasn’t all there, she was staring at places that where very inappropriate but she couldn’t stop. In a split second she scanned over her whole body hoping that Suvi wouldn’t notice, her eyes were a light shade of clear blue and that hair was such as a turn on. Ryder panicked when she noticed that she hadn’t replied and blurted out “it’s always nice to know where you belong”. 

Suvi knew exactly what had happened and wore a soft smile as a result. Sara, still in a panic, asked Kallo to take them to Eos when he was ready, with this being said he excused herself from the bridge while throwing Suvi a genuine smile. She hastened her step on the way out, slid down the ladder and into her quarters. “ah, quiet at last” is all she could manage. 

She finally had her piece, until it was interrupted by Kallo informing her of how long it would take to get to Eos, this made her even happier as it told her how long she had for rest and recuperation. She asked Sam to dim her windows ad turn off her lights so that she could be sat in the darkness.


	3. calm before the storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara has some free time before they get to their first destination and uses it to start and make some new ties.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is lots of talking in this one so i'm winging it to try and figure out how i want to do it. the rest of the chapters should be a lot more bearable from now on though :P

She drifted off for a few hours until she was awoken by Sam alerting her to someone being at her door, “tell them ill unlock the door in a minute, just getting out of bed.”, “yes pathfinder” Sam chimed in response.  
Ryder got out of bed, threw on her dressing gown and unlocked the door for whoever it was. It was Suvi, who was surprised at what she saw when the door hissed open, “oh, pathfinder did I wake you? I’d better let you get back to sleep, sorry…”. 

“don’t worry about it come on in, Sam, can you turn the lights on please? Preferably just the one above the couch if you will?”, “of course, pathfinder.” 

The one light turned on above the couch but was low and dim as to not strain Sara’s eyes.  
Sara made a gesture to Suvi to sit with her on the couch, Suvi nervously obliged.  
“now, what can I do for you Suvi?” she inquired.

“I can’t sleep”, she responded, still kicking herself for waking Sara up.  
“Any idea what could be keeping you up?”, it was time for Ryder to do what she did best, listen.  
“I don’t know, I think it’s just all coming down on top of me now. The realization of what we’re doing and everything we sacrificed is just hitting home…”.

“I know I know, it’s taken it out on me as well I know all about it.” She said softly in response to Suvi’s pain.  
“want to take a walk?” she suggested to Suvi as this was something that always helped to think things through.  
Suvi hesitated for a second, “sure…”. The pair got out off the couch and made their way to the observation deck, they took their time as they were in no rush. The Tempest was quiet, and the only sounds to be heard was them two and the soft hum of the ODSY drive at the back of the ship. 

The view from the deck was breath taking and neither of them had ever seen anything like it. Neither could find what they wanted to say.

Sara took a deep breath and broke the silence, “beautiful isn’t it…?”, she threw he gaze back to Suvi and awaited her response.

“It is but…but I don’t see how this involves anxie- “. “listen, look at every one of those stars out there, now picture every one of them as someone you left behind. You never really left any of them, they go where you go”.  
“Ryder…that was beautiful…it means a lot for you to say that…”.  
“don’t worry about it, it know what its like to feel unnerved and so on”, Sara paused for a second before letting out a long sigh.

“Sara? Are you alright…?”, “yeah, don’t worry about me…Sleep well, see in you in the morning”. Sara glanced at Suvi, threw a half smile her away, relaxed her eyebrows so they would go to a position where they represented her emotions and then headed back to her room.

Neither of them got much sleep that night, they both were consumed with what had transpired between them sat on Ryder's couch. Suvi was hitched firmly on how understanding she was and how she never had to explain her worries to Ryder. 

Suvi was someone who naturally got up early in the morning so that she could be productive as she could be. She thought she was up before everyone else, but she was mistaken. Sara had been up for a while now, she still felt the energy drain after last night. She hoped that her tried and true method would help her to alleviate some of her burden, singing, she was a fun of Irish country as she had been born with a half Irish family and was raised listening to it.

She asked Sam to play her one of her favorites without the words over it to which he responded with playing “your health is your wealth” by Mike Denver. She was glad that her quarters were sound proof from the rest of the ship. The doors were not as sound proof as she had thought they were and this was going to do something that she wasn’t going to find out about for a while yet.

Suvi had gotten out of bed at her early hour to get her day started with her tea, as she approached the galley she overheard something else than she had expected. From Sara’s room she heard her singing, but she couldn’t quite figure out what. It sounded beautiful to her as she sang the chorus out loud.

“Ah your health is your wealth, now don’t you forget it   
These are the words my father told me   
Back when I was a lad, such a long time ago   
Your health is your wealth now I’m telling you so” 

Suvi didn’t know what to think, she knew that it sounded good but what would cause to Sara to sing a song like that. She continued into the galley and started to make her tea.

Sara finished her song, now felling a lot better, asked Sam if anyone else was up yet, Sam informed her that Suvi was up, and sat in the galley. She now had a good enough reason to leave her room and start her day. She slid through the doors into the galley and to Suvi who was sat resting her arms on the desk.   
“good morning Suvi”, she chimed awkwardly, remembering that she did walk away from her the night before.  
“morning Sara” she smiled back, replaying what she had hear a few moments ago in her head. “could you do me a favor and pour me my tea?”.

“sure thing”. Sara poured her tea and placed it on the table next to Suvi. Sara was more of a coffee person herself but she didn’t dislike tea so she made herself one too and sat down next to Suvi.  
Sara looked at Suvi and asked her a normal question, “sleep well?”. Suvi, having a mouthful of tea, nodded and hummed to indicate that she had. 

After swallowing her tea she fired the question back at Sara, eliciting the response, “wasn’t too bad, could have been better”.

“Same actually, well I mean it was good, but it could have been better”.  
A silence grew between them as they drank their tea at the table, this allowed for them to both go to their thoughts and think about some things separately. Suvi, being the naturally caring that she was, grew concerned for the new pathfinder after what had happened last night on the observation deck.

“Sara…what happened last night?”. She muttered to herself.  
Sara overheard this and asked what she meant.

“After I asked you if you were OK, you just smiled and went back to your room.”  
“Oh that, I’m not the kind of person that likes talking about their feelings, I heard that you were feeling better and so I took it as my que”. “plus I didn’t want you to worry over something that doesn’t really matter”, she added on the end. 

“They might not matter to you but they do matter to me, I might be your co-worker but I am also your friend, and I worry about my friends”.

Without saying a word, Sara nudged over to Suvi and rested her head on her shoulder as a sign of silent appreciation. It wasn’t a common occurrence that Sara found someone who actually wanted to listen to her problems. They sat comfortably like that for the following hour as they were both up early enough to not have to worry.

Their time unfortunately had to come to and end as the rest of the crew started to wake from their slumber.   
“Thank you Suvi…I mean it.”, “don’t worry Ryder, come and talk to me when your upset and I’ll listen”. She whispered sympathetically.

Sara pulled herself up from the table, placed her cup on the counter and made her way out after telling Suvi to enjoy her day.

Suvi finished her tea and went to the bridge to get started, shortly joined by Kallo getting into his seat. “morning Kallo” Suvi chimed when he was done getting comfortable. Kallo happily reciprocated the comment, “morning Suvi”. 

Sara had gone back to her room to contemplate what had just happened, it had been a long time since someone willingly sat down and told her that they cared how she felt. She wasn’t used this sensation, it made her feel good on the inside, a kind of good that she never really knew what to do with.   
With that, Sara got back in her bed and opened her datapad to do some light reading, blissfully unaware of how tired she still was. She drifted off back to sleep for most of the day while the others went about their business on the rest of the ship.

Gil made sure that the drive core was operating well, Lexi was making sure that everyone was healthy and ready for anything, Cora was watching over her plants with the help of Sam, Liam was still decorating, Kallo was flying the ship and Suvi was in talks with the Nexus science team. Leaving Sara to be undisturbed for the whole day.   
She awoke in a daze because she didn’t recall going to sleep, “Sam, what time is it?”, “the time is now midnight.”  
“Sam? Is anyone still awake?”   
“Only Suvi is awake at this time” he answered, “is she on the bridge right now?”, “yes pathfinder”.

Sara sighed and got up to go and talk to Suvi, upon leaving her room she had a light bulb moment, Suvi liked tea so if she brought her a cup, she could use it to break into the conversation. She made them both a piping hot cup and took them both up to the bridge.

“Hey Suvi” she said softly, walking up behind the scientist.  
“Hey Ryder”, Sara lent one of her hands in front of Suvi, “I have something for you”.  
“Oh, thanks, I was wanting one of those”.

Sara sat down on the divider and they sat in silence for a while, looking out at the stars. “What’s up Sara?”, “not much really, just came to talk…”.  
“What about…?”, “anything, I enjoyed our talk last night and I thought we could just sit and talk for a while I guess”.  
Suvi bubbled, “I’d be happy to”.

The pair of them sat and talked about different things and their past. A few hours and a couple more cups of tea later, Sara looked at the time, only to discover that it was 3:00 AM. She encouraged Suvi to go to bed and get some sleep as she is going to need it. 

Suvi argued back stating that “you are going to need it too, pathfinder”.  
Sara chuckled in response, “I’ve just slept for like 24 hours, I’m all good, besides I would get to sleep quickly anyways”.

Suvi gave into the persuasion, “alright Ryder, I’ll see you tomorrow yeah?”.  
Sara smiled back at her, “of course you will”.  
As Suvi went back to the crew quarters, Sara went back to her quarters, dropping the two cups off in the galley on the way past.

Back in her chamber, Sara threw herself in her chair and began responding to emails and writing reports until the early hours of the morning. At the end she was contemplating banging her head on the desk when there came a knock at the door.

Sara had a feeling that she knew who it was so she didn’t have to think before raising her voice, “come on in”.  
The doors hissed open to reveal a freshly showered and dressed Suvi with a cup of tea in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other one. She gestured to Ryder to take the coffee from one of her hands.  
Sara took it while exclaiming “Suvi, you’re a life saver”, she took a sip and immediately started to relax, almost melting like butter.

She took a lager drink of coffee before asking Suvi, “what brings you to my little corner of the tempest at this time of the morning?”., “ohh, nothing, I didn’t have anything to do and I thought hanging out would be a fun way to pass the time.

“I like the way you think, make yourself comfortable, I have one email to write and then I’ll join you.”, Suvi made her way of the couch and sat herself down.

She never really took notice of how Sara looked, she was happy enough to just accept how she looked and focus more on the personality but now she had a moment to think about it and look at her without her noticing. The more she looked, the more attractive she got. She was slim but well built, long black hair which she usually had tied back into a pony tail and the cutest smile that she had ever seen. 

Sara was finally done with the last email that she had to write, she let out a long sigh, picked up the cup of coffee to her side and made her way over to Suvi on the couch, she threw herself down with a groan and lied against the arm rest so that she could look directly at Suvi. Luckily for Suvi, she broke out of trance as Sara was just getting up from the chair.

They talked a bit about each other and what they liked to do and so on. The topic of science soon came up as Sara had asked her what she had been studying recently, what she stumbled across was something of beauty. Upon hearing that Sara wanted to know about science, Suvi’s eyes lit up and she gained so much energy and passion in her voice.

Sara was entranced at what she saw, everything looked so much more beautiful now, her fiery red hair that stopped at her shoulders, her bright blue eyes and a stunning body complimented well by the white and red science coat. 

Suvi was still talking about science when she phased back into reality so she took the opportunity to actually listen, she didn’t understand any of it but she did say that she would always listen to her.  
Everyone would be waking up soon, it was going to be a busy day as they would be landing on Eos and getting it all started.

Neither of them wanted to part, but they knew they had to.


	4. touchdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the team meets a new friend.

Sara called a crew meeting so that they could describe the plan to them all.

“Kallo is going to touch down at the first failed outpost so that we can stay a bit protected and have somewhere to start. While we are there we are going to try and figure something out and hopefully find anything to help us along the way. Also we will be sending any of the scientific scans we get to Suvi for her to look over - “.  
Kallo interrupted Sara mid-sentence with a sense of urgency, “with that being said, I should get back to the bridge to begin the descent,”

“right, good point, Suvi, if you would like to go with him.”  
Kallo and Suvi made their way back to the bridge, leaving Sara, Liam and Cora at the table to discuss what the plan was when they touched down. They didn’t plan on doing anything too extreme so they left Lexi out of the conversation. 

They concluded the discussion and headed to the armoury to get suited up.  
After they got their armour on they joined Suvi and Kallo on the bridge, ready for touchdown. The tempest glided through the humid, hot air of Eos and touched down at the first outpost site “promise”. It was a wreck and the power was out.

The three left the bridge and headed to the cargo bay where they were to exit the ship.

The ship was quiet without them and there had been nothing really to do, Suvi’s mind began to wander away from where it should be. Her mind went back to the talk she and Sara had that morning and how Sara understood what she was saying, she never had to explain herself to Ryder, she just understood.  
She remembered her smile and her dark hazel eyes that stared in empathy and curiosity.  
As suddenly as she had drifted off, the comms lit up and Sara’s voice echoed around the ship with an update, “we’ve got power back to the base, recovered a Nomad and dropped a forward station near the entrance of the base, will continue to keep you posted”

“Loud and clear Ryder”, Suvi acknowledged in approval  
Suvi glanced and Kallo said his name to get his attention, once he responded, she took a moment to make sure that she wanted to have this conversation. “have you had time to talk with Sara much?” she said hesitantly.  
“not much but she seems like a nice person from what I can tell.”  
“she is, she’s really understanding and Is a good listener to boot…”.  
Kallo looked back at Suvi, wondering why she was telling him this, “why are you telling me this Suvi?”.  
“I…don’t know, never mind”. She said after letting out a sigh, “how long was I out for?” she added  
“about an hour” he said without taking his eyes off his console

How had she been in her own head for an hour? Did she have feelings for Sara or was it some kind of short term infatuation that would be gone before she knew it. She didn’t know what it was, but she wasn’t quite ready to find out.

Back on the ground they were making progress. Sara, Liam and Cora took the Nomad that they had retrieved and sped towards a large structure they saw in the distance, it had a similar look to that of the one her dad interfaced with. This was their first lead in trying to fix this planet. 

As they approached the monolith they found that there was radiation protection around it like there was at the outpost along with other initiative tech, leading them to believe that someone else had already tried to do something with it. 

Sara attempted to activate the console but nothing happened, after a discussion with Sam, they she began looking for the glyphs that Sam had told her to activate. She climbed to the top of the pillars that surrounded the console to scan for the glyphs, when she scanned them they activated, when she had the last one Sam told her that she should now be able to activate the console.

Sara jumped from the top of the pillar she was on and used her jump jets to slow the landing right in front of the console. She put her arm out and spread out her fingers so that Sam could do his thing. As the activation came to an end, a shout came from the right of Sara and before she could even turn her head she was tackled to the ground by an excited Asari. 

Cora and Liam raised their guns in response and aimed directly at her. The now surrendering Asari put her hands up and continued to explain about the remnant. She got off of Sara and helped her up.

After a quick introduction and some wrapping up as out of the way, it was getting dark and they didn’t want to be out at night, they piled into the nomad and headed back to the Tempest for the night when they got back, Sara introduced PeeBee to Suvi and watched as she lost her mind at all the new things that she was learning.  
Sara glanced over to her and almost tripped over her own thoughts as she saw that smile, a smile that she wanted to see more of. She was briefly brought back into reality by PeeBee telling her that while she was happy to spent the night, she wouldn’t be hanging around for much longer.

Sara took the opportunity for some peace after the last 12 hours of struggle and fighting. First, she needed to get the armour off, then once she was free from that weight she could have a shower and wash away the physical strain on her body. Then finally, when the other steps were done, could she go to her quarters and mentally relax.

Getting her amour off was always a problem due the clips on the back, luckily for her she could use her biotics to free herself, one piece came off after another until she was ready for a shower. She had not been able to rest for the past 12 hours so she stank of sweat and blood, she was read to get rid of it. 

The water ran through her hair as she stood frozen under the stream of boiling water falling around her. Her mind began to drift out of lucidness and started to get more and more absent-minded, she was seeing someone in what seemed to be a memory. It was Suvi, they were both back in her quarters on the couch, talking about each other and their pasts. She remembered how she looked when she was talking about science and the way her eyes lit up when she realized that someone actually wanted to hear what she had learned. 

The memory froze, just on the moment that she was looking at Suvi’s smile, it was so genuine and bright. Then the realisation hit her, she had caused Suvi to smile like that, it was her interest in what Suvi was doing that made her so happy. She knew then that she wanted to always be the cause for something so beautiful. But how?  
She snapped back into reality, finished her shower and then went to her quarters, she planned to get some emails out of the way but she was so drained that she lied on her bed, mumbled “10 more minutes” and then blacked out.

While all this was happening, Suvi was still interrogating PeeBee on what she knew about the remnant and their buildings, PeeBee told her what she knew but as she hadn’t had much success she could only tell her so much. Suvi thanked her for sharing her knowledge and then bounced back down to the bridge to start writing up her reports for the science team. 

She typed for at least a couple of hours until she was tired enough to warrant going to bed. She slid down the ladder to the side of the door and made her way into the crew quarters. She grabbed her PJ’s and got herself ready in the bathroom. For some reason, this time it smelt different, like a scent she’d smelt before. One flashback later and she realised where she knew the smell from. It was Sara’s perfume she had been wearing when the had talked on the couch that morning. What would she do to smell that again.  
She climbed into bed, exhaled, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep 

Suvi was a vivid dreamer, all of her dreams were all very clear and she was one the people who could remember them. She often dreamt of unseen worlds and endless discovery’s to be made, but this was also different and there was someone else there too. She could see who it was, it was Sara on the top of a ledge, with her armour and her gun, watching over her as she did what she enjoyed…science. 

The next day came and like every day, Sara woke up being unable to function and Suvi was up hours ago. Suvi did what she had done for the last couple of days and asked Sam to tell her when Sara was up so that she could bring her morning coffee and talk with her for a bit while everyone else got up. There wasn’t much conversation to be had however as they were both half day dreaming and half there, neither of them wanted to say something and make it awkward so they just stared out of the window over the sandy wasteland that is Eos.


	5. monoliths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and her team activate the other 2 monolith and a someone gets a supply surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short one for you, i needed a way to taking the action back to the ground team while keeping it interesting enough.

Sara was ready to head back out onto Eos to activate the other monoliths, she was on the ramp but instead of Liam being there she had opted to take PeeBee out with her so that she could hopefully aid with the monoliths and see how well she adapted to combat with them.

They got comfortable in the Nomad and made their way out, leaving Cora to watch over her new plants. The landscape of Eos was sandy and hellish, it wasn’t much different wherever they looked. Sara was hoping that she could change that. 

The second monolith was a lot easier to activate as she not only had PeeBee with her but she also knew about the glyphs and the remnant bots that could swarm them if they did something wrong. With Sam’s help, the process went smoothly and only took an hour instead of the four that it had taken the first time.

As things were going well on the ground, things were also calm on the bridge, there was no calls or emergencies, just updates.

Suvi was getting bored of the calm and was looking for something to do. Vetra was the big sister figure she went to with something serious and she wasn’t very close with Cora so she decided that Lexi was actually her best choice.

Lexi was serious when on duty but when she wasn’t treating an injury, she was the one person that Suvi could connect with the most as they both loved science and things alike. The excused herself for the bridge and began the search.

The chase came to an end when Suvi poked her head around the door to the med bay to find Lexi with her head in a data pad. “Lexi?”. Lexi jumped for a second and then turned her attention to the scientist in the doorway. She hummed as to get Suvi to ask her the question. “are you free right now?”, “well, nobody’s injured so I guess so…why?”.

“Well nothing is happening and I like talking to you so”. Suvi said hesitantly.

Lexi chuckled at her nervousness and told her to sit down. They held a generally normal conversation between them but ultimately it was bound to come out sooner or later. 

Lexi wasn't surprised at what she heard, she was a qualified psychologist when it was all said and done. she thanked Suvi for trusting her with this and ensured her that the secret was safe with her.

On Sara’s end, things weren’t going much better. They were approaching the third and final monolith only to find that it was being guarded by the Kett and some kind of research facility. So they went to work on thinning the heard. Liam provided generally gunfire, PeeBee was hitting more shots wit her pistol than she had seen anyone do before and Sara was being the bad-ass biotic she liked to be. 

One by one the Kett were running low, they were getting down to the last few combatants and with one last biotic blast into one of them, the rest went with him. The gunfire had subsided and the bodies were scattered, all that was left was the layer of blood foreign blood that had occupied the floors.

The doors to the facility were sealed with a shield so they needed to deactivate the generators before they could even get in. by a sheer stroke of luck, the, first one Sara found was the generator for the opened end of the facility so they could walk right in.

They began their examination by doing light scans of the base and a quick look around. They were about to leave the facility and make their way to the monolith when something could be felt through the floor. A clunking sound echoed off the walls and then in one screeching shatter, a Grogan burst through one of the glass panes with a wraith no less.

The confrontation could have gotten off to a better foot but when Sara remembered what the Nexus did before she got there, she couldn’t really blame him for it. The name was Drack and his character didn’t make it hard to guess what he enjoyed the most, guns, and lots of ‘em. 

Drack went on his way to find something else to kill, leaving Sara, Liam and PeeBee to deal with the third and final monolith behind them.

The monolith was like the other three but there was something slightly different about this one, instead of it being just something for Sam to figure out and execute, it was more like an intergalactic game of Sudoku. As good as a problem solver she was, it took her a while to get it figured out but, in the end, it wasn’t too much trouble. Other than that one wave of remnant they had to take out when Sara didn’t quite get it right the first time.

With their job here being done, they signaled the Tempest to let them know that she were on the way back with no problems. It wasn’t a problem that they were going to be able to see that was going to be the problem. 

They walked back through the Kett base that they thought they emptied on the way in but as they walked towards one of the exits, one of Kett Anointed lunged out from behind a supply crate and sent one of its fists into Sara’s lower chest, taking her breath out of her and dropping her to the floor. 

With PeeBee having the quicker reaction times to the other two, she brought her pistol to bear and unloaded a magazine randomly in the target. With the Kett dead and the walls blue, they could pick up the pathfinder. 

Liam was the stronger of the two so he picked her up while PeeBee relayed information back to the tempest.

“tempest, get Lexi ready, Ryder's injured.”

“copy that, what happened?” Kallo inquired.

“anointed punch to the chest, were bringing her in now”.

Lexi was still talking with Suvi when she heard the news. Suvi started to panic lightly and left the room in a hurry. Lexi thought for a second as to what could have caused that but then she remembered what Suvi had trusted her with.

Suvi went to the crew quarters and threw herself onto her bunk, she had just told Lexi that she liked Sara and now she was coming in injured. Suvi was worried for Sara, not just as a team member, or as a friend but as someone who cared more than Sara knew.

Lexi stood at the door, waiting for the electrical whine of the Nomad to come over the ridge. She was more nervous than she thought she would be, she didn’t know why. Was it that this was the first injury, that it was the pathfinder or was it what Suvi had said, she didn’t know, but she knew she had a job to do.

When the Nomad started to approach the Tempest, Sara had got her breath back and was breathing normally but was still in stupid amounts of pain. Liam pulled the Nomad into the cargo bay and lifted Sara out so that he could take her to the med bay.

When Sara was on the table, Lexi was able to get to work. She lifted Ryders shirt to uncover a large black spot in the centre of her stomach.


	6. revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the pair get what they wanted to hear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the chapter releases are always going to be inconsistent because not only am i great procrastinator but other random things apply.

Lexi’s first port of call was to stop Sara from feeling as much pain and to calm her down. The pain killers also had the side effect of making people less than lucid. 

As the pain killers took effect, Sara could feel the pressure easing off her chest and the muscles stopped spasming. She got dizzy and she couldn’t think straight either. 

Lexi was in the middle of checking for internal injuries when Sara started to try and put together a coherent sentence. 

“Lexi? Do you know Suvi?”

“I do know Suvi, what about her?”

Sara tripped over her words for a second before managing to whisper, “I really like her, but I don’t I’m worried that she doesn’t like me back…”.

Lexi froze as she put two and two together. “um, I don’t know, you would have to ask her yourself”.

“I don’t think I can do that, though”. She slurred

Lexi sighed and thought for a second one what would be the best response for Ryder considering her state. “I know you’ll figure it out eventually”.

At this point, the other effects of the pain killers were setting in, mainly tiredness. Sara drifted off to sleep looking up at the ceiling.

While she was out, Lexi applied the medi-gel to lower the swelling and make sure that she wouldn’t be in as much pain when she woke up. 

The next morning, Sara awoke to see the roof of the med bay, due to the medicine she hadn’t moved during her sleep.  
She let out at groan before rolling her head around the room to see if anyone was there. Upon hearing this groan, Lexi jumped from her chair and walked over to the bed that Sara was still lying on.

“don’t try and move yet, how are you feeling?”. She said quietly, trying not to stress her.

A moment passed before Sara spoke, “a little pain in my stomach but other than that not much of anything.”.

Lexi sighed in relief knowing that it wasn’t much more than swelling and bruising. She grabbed Sara’s hand and worked with her to get her sat up and alert. The medicine would take a while yet so Lexi wouldn’t know how much pain she would be in when they wore out.

She had Sam check for anything serious and when It came back that there was nothing quite that wrong, she had a moment to think. 

What was she to do, it was none of her business to get involved in the love interests of her crew mates and her boss…but she had an idea anyway.

When she was confident that Sara was able to rest independently, she would call Suvi to help Sara get back to her bed so that she could rest. 

After Suvi dropped herself in her bunk last night she didn’t move until she fell asleep fully clothed. She was too worried to do anything else at the time, plus the news had given her a sick felling in her stomach, all she had heard before that is that Sara was asleep and stable. When she awoke that morning, the worry made her look like Sara when she woke up, unable to function and wanting to go back to bed. But it was nothing a cup of tea couldn’t take care of.

She was in the galley with her head in her hands a cup of tea to her side when Sam emanated from her omni-tool informing her that Lexi wanted her assistance.

As she approached to doors to the med bay the doors hissed open to reveal a dopey looking Sara sat on the end of the bed. One of the first things that Suvi saw is the fact that other than the sports bra she was wearing, she was shirtless. 

Her eyes were caught by the big black spot on her stomach, causing her to wince at the sight.

She broke her eyes away from Sara to find Lexi to see where she wanted help with. Lexi was sat at her desk reading from a data pad when she heard the doors open, she finished the sentence she was reading before she changed her attention.

She got up from her chair and walked over to Sara and Suvi. She turned to Suvi and told her that Sara was still slightly disorientated and she would need someone to help her to bed. Suvi panicked for a second before regaining control over herself, “um, sure no problem Lexi”.

Suvi rested Sara’s left arm over her neck and held it there with her left hand while she wrapped her other arm around Sara’s bare waist. 

Her skin was warm and soft to the touch, flustering Suvi and making her face go a shade of pink. Suvi helped Sara to her feet and held her up as they made their way to her quarters. The door hissed open to reveal the room just as Sara had left it. 

They both nearly tripped as they didn’t anticipate the single step that went to the rest of the room, when they got to the bed Suvi took Sara’s left arm off her neck and rotated towards the door so that she could sit Sara on the bed.

Suvi still had one arm around Sara’s waist so she followed her down to bed as not to drop her. Upon hitting the bed, Sara let out a sigh of relief to finally be back in her own bed, where it was comfortable at least. 

Sara felt her mood instantly improve as she wrapped herself up in her blankets and was now wearing a smile. 

That was all Suvi had to do so when it looked like Sara was comfortable, she headed off to the door. She was nearly there when she was stopped in her tracks by Sara calling her name.

She turned around to Sara, wondering what she could want and was greeted by her looking slightly confused. “what’s up?”

Sara hesitated for a second while she tried to make her decision, she remembered telling Lexi about her crush on Suvi so she was contemplating telling her right here. In the end she decided against it and saw her off with a quiet and genuine “thank you…”.

Suvi could help but smile at her for the remark, turned around to leave the room and then head back to the bunks to register what had just happened. She wasn’t entirely sure if what had happened was real, was she dreaming? She didn’t know. She had no time to rest however as she was needed on the bridge, but before she left, she asked Sam to let her know if something was happening with Sara.

Lexi was now in a predicament, she wanted to act on the information that she had but her professional side was reminding her that it was private information and that she was in no place to act on it. She concluded that she wasn’t going to come up with something but if something hit her then it might change, she was just going to have to think on it.

Sara was happy to be back in her room, it was exactly how she had left it: a coat and a jumper on the arm of the couch, her collections on her shelf and her secret boxes in the bottom of her wardrobe. 

For once in a long time she had time to think, think about everything that’s happened, everything that is happening and everything that could happen.

She was overwhelmed and started to tear up, but they refused to fall over something so trivial. In the end, she just needed rest and to wait for the bruising to go down.

After Lexi told the rest of the crew that Sara was clear to be visited, they all funneled in one by one to see how she was doing. As Liam and PeeBee were there, they were understandably the most concerned but the others were just glad that she was ok. 

Sara spent the rest of her day being warm in bed. Not doing a lot of anything. She spent her rest, getting to know and catching up with the crew when they would drop in to see her. She learned many new things about her crew, such as Cora’s ability to suspend things in zero-g using biotics and the fact that PeeBee and Lexi could even use biotics at all.

That evening Sara was rather upset and confused, she had told Lexi that she liked Suvi so she decided that telling Suvi that to her face couldn’t be more embarrassing than that. Sara had never had any good experiences with dating and it had never really gone well for her before. She had only been in one relationship before and it hadn’t gone the way she wanted it to, the girl she was dating at the time left her for seemingly no reason, leaving Sara broken on the inside. 

Then quickly as she had started thinking, it had been interrupted by Lexi, she came to check how the bruising was and if it was going down. Sara had stayed in bed as she was told and hadn’t done much of anything either so all was going well. Lexi ran her hand over the swelling area and checked for any damage that she not noticed the first time, there was non and she left Sara in peace.

Sara was now convinced that if she didn’t confess her feelings for Suvi now then she wouldn’t get the chance for a good while, she still had the vault to activate and a settlement to set up. She wouldn’t get the chance and by the time she did it might have passed her by.

She gathered up some of her strength and pulled herself from her bed and trudged her way to the galley. She knew that Suvi like tea so she thought that she could use that to her advantage to try and break the ice a bit. 

She brewed the tea for Suvi and a coffee for herself and made her way back to her quarters. She placed the tea on the table on one side of the bed and her coffee on the other side while she got back into bed. When she was comfortable she exhaled slowly before asking for Sam. “Sam? Where is Suvi right now?”.

Sam acknowledged her call and answered her question, “Suvi is on the bridge pathfinder, would you like me to call her down for you?”, Sara took a moment to mentally prepare herself and approved Sam under her breath. “Please”.

On the bridge everything was calm, Suvi was going over some of the notes she had made and Kallo was just keeping and eye on things. Sam came over the comms and echoed around the bridge, “Dr Anwar, Ryder has requested you to her quarters”.

Suvi and Kallo looked to each other in confusion, Suvi was first to speak, “I wonder what that could be about”.  
“I don’t know, I guess you’d better go find out”, Kallo responded.

Suvi took her legs from the leg rest, got up and excused herself, as she approached the ladders that took her down to Ryder's quarters, her heart rate was accelerated and she didn’t know what to feel.

She took a moment to compose herself before she opened the doors to Ryders quarters. She got close enough to the doors so that they would open and she could look in.  
Sara was keeping her eyes to the door when the opened to reveal a rather nervous Scot. She smiled at her before saying anything.

“come on in Suvi”, she said quietly. 

“what’s up Sara”, she puzzled back.

Sara gestured to the tea on the table at the other side of the bed, and then for her to take a seat next to her on the bed.

When Suvi had thanked her for the tea and sat down next to her, she took another deep breath and started to speak.

“Suvi I have something to tell you, I didn’t want to do it earlier because it was scared of how you would react and how it would effect our friendship so I thought now was as good a time as any. When I met you, there was something different about you, the way you light up when you talk about science, the way you can also be a scientists but also religious and the way you care about my troubles and everything else. Suvi, I like you more than a friend, I want to be more than that. That’s…all I wanted to say”.

Suvi’s face went bright red and her heart flustered at the revelation that her feelings were being reciprocated and thought about. Suvi put her mug down on the table and turned to Sara next to her. She budged over to Sara and held her hand in hers. This was it, this is when she was going to tell Sara how she felt, there was no time other than then when it would be right.

Suvi began softly, “Sara…I want you know that I feel the same way about you. The way you listen to all the things I enjoy even though you don’t understand, the way you don’t question the fact that I have a faith, and just the way that you just spend the time to listen to me when I’m bored”. 

Neither of them spoke, they just sat in the beautiful silence as they smiled at each other and just appreciated each other’s company.

Suvi didn’t want to go leave Sara right now but she knew that she needed to get back to the bridge and get back to her work. She broke her hand from Sara’s and whispered in her eye. “I have to go now…I’m sorry…”.

The two of them placed their heads against each other’s for a moment before Suvi reluctantly had to get up and get back to the bridge and get back to work. She smiles at Sara and gave her a wink on her way out, leaving Sara upset that it had to end up like that.

Suvi walked back into the bridge with the biggest smile she had worn in a long time. Kallo turned his gaze to the door to see who had just come in. upon seeing her with this smile, he couldn’t help himself but to ask her why she was smiling like that. 

“what’s put you in such a good mood?”

“oh um, nothing…”. She panicked as she was still thinking about it.

Back when Sara told Lexi about her feelings for Suvi, she was too under medical influence to withhold it but she wasn’t too far out to think that she would probably do something about it. Now that Sara had gotten it out of the way, she wanted to make sure that Lexi wasn’t going to try and do anything, so she called Lexi to her quarters and told her that she had told Suvi and not to try anything.

Lexi was relieved at this, she didn’t have to worry about her mind trying to figure something out and she could get back to focusing. She took this opportunity to do a final check on the bruising to make sure it was going down. She assured Sara that she would be ready to get back into it tomorrow afternoon but if she wanted to take the whole day off then she could If she wanted.

She bid Sara a good night sleep before leaving to go to bed herself.

Nightfall came and most had gone to bed, leaving Sara in her restless state and Suvi who liked to work for a while after everyone else went to bed. 

After what happened earlier, Sara was longing to spend some time with Suvi, considering that most of the crew had gone to bed, she thought it wouldn’t now be a good time. Her muscles were still a bit sore but she wanted it badly. She rolled out of bed and plodded out of her room towards the ladder.

Getting up the ladder took longer than she would have liked but all things considered, it could have been worse. The doors slid open to reveal Suvi sitting at her console working away and talking to herself. Sara found it cute, her soft voice rambling aimlessly at whatever she was thinking. She smiled as she walked over to Suvi.

Sara wrapped her arms around her and purred in her ear, “You don’t have to talk to yourself, I’m here now…”.

Suvi took one of her arms from the console and held one of Sara’s hands and began to smile. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in be in bed right now?”.

Sara chuckled while she thought of a response, “I was bored and I wanted to see you so here I am, why don’t you wrap this up and come and spend some time with me?”, immediately changing to a grin when she finished her sentence.

Suvi sighed in response and said, “I can’t, it’s important but it doesn’t mean you can’t stay and talk”. The two spent the next few hours talking in their new-found confidence and trust, until it was around 2 AM and they both needed to get some sleep.

Neither of them were happy about it and neither of them wanted to part but they both knew the value of sleep and they both liked getting plenty of it. Suvi and Sara put their foreheads together and closed their eyes to share their feelings in a way that words sometimes just can’t.

“Thank you, Ryder, for listening to all of my rambling, even though you don’t understand any of it. And just for spending some time with me…”. She whispered, still heads together.  
“don’t worry about it, it was my pleasure, and please, its Sara to you now…”.

The pair broke away and went down the ladder one after another and went their separate ways for the night.

Sara crashed almost instantly while Suvi asked Sam to tell her when Sara was up in the morning.


	7. habitation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the hard part on Eos is done and Sara gets some time with her favourite person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you have enjoyed any of this so far, feel free to leave a comment letting me know which part it was :)

The next morning, Sara woke up in a panic at what time it was, it was almost mid-day and she wasn’t up yet. She was late. 

Sam alerted Suvi to the fact that Sara had woken like she had asked him to do the previous night. She jumped from her bunk and bounded to go the galley so that she could make Sara some coffee and herself some tea.

While she was waiting for it to brew, she was joined by Cora who was looking for something to eat. Cora, being an Asari commando was quite the observant one, she had noticed that both Sara’s and Suvi’s mood had lifted over the past few days. When she walked through the door and saw Suvi, she had some questions to ask.

“hey Suvi…”. She said, extending the words to indicate curiosity.

Suvi could probably guess what she was getting at so she didn’t try and put it off. “morning Cora, what’s up”.

Cora appreciated the fact that she wasn’t trying to put it off and jumped right in. “I’ve noticed that you and Sara and you have had a mood increase over the last couple days, anything you want to tell me?”.

“uh, nope".

Cora took the hint that it might be personal and let it go, “alright, if you say so”.

Suvi sighed in relief at the fact that she wouldn’t have to explain anything. The tea and the coffee finished brewing, much to Suvi’s delight. She picked one up in one hand and the other in her free hand. 

She moved out of the galley and stood outside of Sara’s quarters. A smile grew on her face as she could see the person that was soon becoming her favourite. She used the brink of one of the cups to knock on the door, a moment passed before she heard the groggy voice of the pathfinder, “come in”.

Sara was still in bed, partially panicking and partially too sleepy to care, the rest of her calmed down she saw Suvi with a fresh coffee. Her eyes widened at the sight of the beautiful woman before her.

Suvi drifted over to her and handed off the coffee to her and then sat down next to her on the bed. They both decided that silence would be the best thing right now so they both just looking out the window, taking sips of their mugs. Both Sara and Suvi were both the kind of people who just appreciated company and this was bliss. 

Sara was first to finish as she was both thirsty and sleepy, she sighed in delight and then thanked Suvi for the coffee. She rested her head on Suvi’s shoulder while she finished her tea. When she was done they sat and talked for a bit while Sara debate how to get everyone in the loop for what was going to happen. In the end she concluded that that it was probably best to just hold a meeting for everyone. 

They all stood around the table on the comm room while Sara briefed them all on the plan, she, Cora and Liam were to go into the vault while the others watched the readings and kept in the loop at all times. With that wrapped up, the trio went into the armory and get themselves ready in their armour.

Sara was ready, she was off duty for a day and a half to recover and she was now fit and willing to go at It. 

Armed and ready, they climbed into the nomad and roared of the ramp into the sandy plains. 

The three lines coming from the 3 monoliths met at a point in the lake on an island on the lake near the second settlement. When they reached the point, there was no way over to the island but right before their eyes, two massive pillars rose from the sand and a bridge formed in front of them to cross over. The cover opened to a ramp they could see from the other side. 

Liam in his excitement couldn’t contain himself, he exclaimed “let’s see if it is stable”. Sara just went for it and took a step onto the bridge and when it didn’t collapse she continued over to the other side where PeeBee was waiting outside of her shuttle. 

“Sam? Can you take as many pictures as you can for me?”. She spoke out loud. “yes pathfinder”. 

They walked down the ramp the remnant door together and walked inwards towards the end of the corridor and what looked like a door in the floor, there was a glowing ball floating above it, Sara placed her hand on it and it disappeared. But right after she did, it disappeared and the door began to open to reveal a hole, without thinking Sara jumped in and went for it. The other three followed one by one starting with PeeBee and then Liam and then Cora.

What ensued was hours of puzzling and combat, whenever the activated anything they would be greeted with more and more remnant to fight and the have to go back and forth to get through the maze. 

After hours of going back and forth, and ducking for cover, they got to the console that Sam had pointed out to be the main console.

They were smart enough to consider the fact that they wouldn’t know what would happen so they checked over the area for anything useful, nobody found anything so they met back at the console. Sara held out her hand to the console so that Sam could activate it for her.

All of a sudden, the facility started to change, the walls swelled with blue energy and the low rumbling turned into churning, then the most startling of them all was the thick black smoke which was now being produced in all directions, none of them knew what to do so they did what the natural thing was. Run.

The way they came in had been blocked so they had to find another way out, they found the nearest free path and took it, the vents in the floor were now also spewing out the toxic smoke as they went. It was right on their heels and if they didn’t get out quickly then it was going to kill them.

After using the alternate path to find a way back to the entrance, they found it sealed to their horror. They panicked while struggling to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. PeeBee swung around the corner just in front of the smoke and helped to try and get the door open but it wouldn’t budge. Sara turned around and noticed the console they had completely skipped over, she ran up to it and interfaced as a ditch effort.

The smoke was now on top of them and if this didn’t work then this was the end of them. Without a noticeable difference, the smoke began to dissipate away from them before disappearing from view. 

The tension was new defusing between them all while they all caught their breath and let the adrenaline settle down again. 

Sam cut them off and informed them that the atmosphere processor had already started to heal the planet, they took the gravity well back to the service to head back, PeeBee admitted that it had been fun so she was going to stick around after all. 

On the way back to the tempest and the reality was finally setting in, they had activated the vault, added more crew, survived and made the planet habitable.

They still had a few more hours of daylight left and they had an outpost to establish, so instead of going back to the tempest they went to the site they planned the drop at.

When they got to the site, they recognized a particular Krogan in a bout with some Kett. The trio hopped from the Nomad and got to doing what they do best. A brief gunfight later and the Kett were nothing more than dead shells.

With time to talk, Sara convinced Drack to join to crew and to stay on the tempest one the condition that she not embarrass him. With that sorted they could get to setting up the outpost.

The blocks fell from the sky in a ball of fire as they passed through the atmosphere, and before their eyes, the builders were putting it all together, they met with the outpost leader to talk about him and his job, he seemed like someone that could be trusted so she left it at that. 

The Tempest soared over to the new site and as gracefully as It had always been, it touched down, completing the scene for a new beginning. 

All three of the ground team were completely done but they were all high with energy. They pulled into the Tempest to see the rest of the crew stood around the barrier on the upper level, when the doors to the tempest opened, the whole ship erupted with cheers and joy.

Sara only had one thing in mind though, get clean and then meet a certain someone and have some time to themselves.

She sneaked away from the bustle and take her armour off. It was full of sand and skin was course and dry from the heat. She pulled her amour off one piece at a time, at some points having to pull it off due to the stubbornness. By the time she had it all off, she was sweating more than she had been outside. 

The shower was the best thing she had felt in the last few days, the water was washing away the stress, her muscles were relaxing and her hear was going back to the colour it should be. Her breathing slowed and her legs started to weaken, she was glad it was done with. 

She left the shower and threw on her normal clothes, a short sleeve initiative t-shirt and baggy cargo pants. They fit well but at the same time they were tight enough to show off the muscle in her legs. She wasn’t one to show off her body but she was proud of the work she had put it to achieve it.

She left the bathroom, cool and refreshed, ready to look for that one someone. Everyone else was still in the cargo bay, celebrating the achievement. Sara rolled her eyes around the room to look for the redhead, she was stood by the railing with Lexi, looking over everyone else.

Sara sneaked up behind her, wrapped her hands around her waist and rested her head on Suvi’s shoulder, “hey”.

Suvi jumped a little but knew who it was by the voice, she turned around the wrapped her arms around Sara’s neck. Neither of them spoke more but instead rested their heads together for a minute. They had held off from doing things like this in front the crew but considering they had both told Lexi, they didn’t need to worry.

They broke away and lent on the railing next to each other and just looked over at the others in their spirit.

Sara couldn’t let it go on too long because she knew she had to debrief the team. They gathered around the comm table while Sara PeeBee and Sam talked about what had been done. A call with the director later and they were all done.

They still had some business to attend to on the planet but they had to wait for the radiation to clear so they were going to be there for the next few days as well, tomorrow they would have a day off to let the radiation go down. 

Sara crept away from the group and went back to her quarters to rest, she was an introvert and so being in groups wore her out quickly and she needed to be alone to recharge. She was lying on her bed with some music playing in the background and a datapad in her hand. 

Suvi noticed that the Pathfinder had gone somewhere and she asked Sam where she had gone, “Sam, where’s Sara gone?”.

“Sara is currently in her quarters”.

Suvi knew she was probably just getting some alone time but she wanted to spent some time with her too. She too slinked away from the from the group and moved to the galley. She made herself a cup of tea and a coffee for Sara. When they were done, she drifted to Sara’s quarters.

She knocked on her door as to not walk in at a time that was not opportune. While Sara wanted to be alone right now, she wasn’t one to tell someone to go away, she turned off her music and shouted to whoever was outside, “Come in”.

The doors hissed open and Suvi sauntered in with her coffee, Sara grew a smile and gestured to Suvi to sit down on the bed next to her. She happily obliged and threw herself down. 

The pair sat and talked for hours until the sun went down and the crew had gone to bed. Sara didn’t want to do it but she needed to get some sleep. She bid Suvi goodnight with a hug and a nuzzle on her forehead.


	8. a jump

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara spends some time to appreciate her someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no story, just fluff.

The next morning was different to most mornings, instead of waking up feeling groggy and slow, Sara woke up feeling energised calm. After what had happened last night, her first thought was how can she take this up a notch and make this something more official.

Suvi’s face flashed in front of her eyes, they way she looked when she was listening to PeeBee a few days earlier. She put together an idea to show her the images she had Sam take of the vault in her quarters.

She was brought from her thoughts when the door opened and Suvi walked in with the coffee and tea. Sara was used to this now, waking up to Suvi’s beautiful face with that cute smile and the smell of fresh coffee.

Suvi sat herself down on the bed and they exchanged how they slept while Sara woke up. They talked for a while about the things that they had done and how happy Suvi was for her. Sara pulled herself from her bed and wrapped her arms around Suvi and stayed in silence for a while.

While they were in the embrace, Sara was thinking about how she could get Suvi out of the way while she got the plan together. In the end she concluded that she would tell the Liam about the images and to set it up his projector in her room, then while they were doing that, she and Suvi would take a walk around the new outpost.

She broke away from Suvi and got her plan into action, “Suvi, go and get ready, were going out to look around the outpost for a while”.

Suvi hesitated for a moment before responding, “alright”.

Sara noticed the hesitation and immediately, “if it something you wouldn’t be interested in then we don’t have to- “.

But before she could finish Suvi put her finger over her mouth, “Shh, I would love to”.

Suvi chirped up and left Sara’s quarters to go back to the bunks. Sara took the two cups and took them back to the galley, she dropped them on the counter and then traversed her way to Liam’s room in the cargo bay.

She knocked on the door and it opened without anyone saying anything. Liam was sat on his couch, watching something on his TV. He switched his view to Sara who had walked in far enough so that the doors would close.

“Liam, I need a favour”. She said lowly

“what do you need?”. He replied

“I need to you set up your projector at the end of my bed for me… and keep it to yourself, if you need any help then go to Lexi”. She explained, knowing that Suvi would have an idea about what was happening.

Liam, knowing that she had the position advantage didn’t ask any questions, “alright”.

“good”, she quipped back before leaving the room.

She headed back to her quarters and got ready herself, it didn’t take her long though as she wasn’t one to be indecisive. She walked out of her room to see Suvi stood in the corridor waiting for her. She was wearing a nice red t-shirt with a pair of skinny jeans that showed off her curves nicely. She froze for a moment before regaining control of herself. She shook her head blinked a few times before continuing towards her.

They locked eyes and turned the same way, they departed the ship and began their tour.

Liam heard the cargo door close and knew it was his time go get going. He first asked Sam where everyone was, when it was confirmed that nobody was in the way, he got to work. He hurried to Ryder’s quarters and began to set up.

Lexi was just leaving the med-bay when Liam rushed passed him, before she could even ask what he was doing, he was gone. She was curious and so she followed in him into Ryder’s quarters. She approached behind him and coughed to get his attention, much to his surprise.

He turned to Lexi with a shock in his eyes, when he realised who it was he calmed down and got back to it.

Lexi asked him what he was doing, he explained his encounter with Sara earlier. Knowing what she did she wasn’t surprised at this and offered to lend a hand to make sure it was done quick and they could both get out of there. When they were satisfied that it was done, they both left the room paying no attention to the other one.

Outside things were going well, they had been through most of the outpost but Sara had left the science facility till last for one real reason. To see Suvi’s face when she got there. Sara opened the door and gestured to Suvi to go in first, “after you”.

Suvi waltzed in and started to investigate the equipment and talk to the people while Sara lent against the wall watching her, smiling at how happy she was in her natural habitat.

It seemed like an hour she was stood there but she didn’t mind, she loved It in fact. Suvi quickly wrapped up and moseyed over to Sara who was still smiling at her. Suvi grew a nervous smile as she was unsure why Sara was smiling.

“that’s it” she said to Sara.

“it is indeed, come in, there is something on the ship I want to show you”.

Sara started to walk back towards the ship while Suvi trailed just behind her trying to figure out what it could be, she was a scientist and an analyst, this kind of personal unknown was discomforting. The cargo door slid open and the pair entered into the cool atmosphere.

Sara lead Suvi towards her room, they were just outside when Sara turned to her and said, “go and get something comfy on and then join her in her room. Suvi looked confused for a second while she gave it a thought. “alright?”.

Sara flashed her a smile and then turned away to go back into her room, she saw that Liam had set it up for her and she sighed in relief. She swapped her clothes for something more comfortable and then climbed into bed. While she waited for Suvi she got the images ready to put on the screen.

The doors flew open to reveal Suvi dressed in some kind of nightgown, Sara thought she looked beautiful so she gestured to her to join her in the bed. Suvi saw the set up and was nervous of what it could be about. She did what she was told in her uncertainty.

“Sam, could you lock the door and tell the others that we are not to be disturbed?”.

“yes Pathfinder”.

Suvi turned to Sara, finally gathering the courage to ask what she had planned, “Sara, what is this?”.

“don’t worry, you’re going to love it”. She tapped her omni-tool and put the first image on the screen. “when we did the vault, I had Sam take a lot of pictures for me. I saw how interested you were in the vault and the remnant that I thought I could talk through some of it for you”.

Suvi melted on the inside, she couldn’t believe that Sara had even considered something like that just for her. Her whole body relaxed and she grew a smile from ear to ear when she looked back at Sara.

That’s all Sara needed to see to know that Suvi was interested in it. They both looked towards the screen as Sara began to talk about it all. About half way through, Sara took one of her hands from under the cover and placed it over the top, palm up.

Suvi was confused for a second before it hit her and she lightly rested her hand on top of it, Sara noticed the pressure and locked their hands together with her fingers. She had Sam take a recording of what Sara was saying but under her own talking, she hadn’t noticed.

It was well into the evening when they were done, the sun was going down and the sky was going dim. There was silence, Sara had worn her voice and Suvi just enjoyed the comfort.

“so, what do you think?” she whispered.

“it was…incredible, Sara, thank you”. She returned softly.

Sara huffed through her nose at the statemen t. “I could do with some tea, want a cup?”. She remarked.

Suvi nodded to her before starting to get out of the bed, Sara stopped her from getting out and insisted that today was just for her so she would go and get it.

She rolled out of the bed and plodded towards the door. She entered the galley to see Lexi sat at the table, Lexi acknowledged her entrance with a glance and a head nod. “how’s it going?”.

After Sara started brewing the tea, she turned to her and croaked, “how did you know?”. Lexi told her about helping Liam earlier, “ah, ok”.

She sighed in her tiredness and paused for a moment, “it’s been great, thanks”.

Lexi smiled back at her and with her eyes, gave her a well done. The ding went off for the tea and Sara turned back around to finish them.

As she was walking out, Lexi spoke up again, “are you going to send her back to her bunk?” and without thinking, Sara replied, “that’s up to her, if she would like to stay in my bed then I have nothing against it”. Before Lexi could say anymore the doors closed behind her.

Back In her room, she handed Suvi the cup of tea and got back in bed. Suvi was thinking, why was she being so closed off the idea that Sara really cares and means what she says, refused to admit to herself that her feelings were so strong but in that fleeting moment, she allowed herself to feel the way she should. Sara needed the tea after all of that talking and so she finished it quickly but Suvi wasn’t quite done.

Sara didn’t say anything because she just enjoyed the moment, it was quiet times like this when there is nothing to be said, that she really enjoyed. Suvi moved slightly down the bed so that she could lie down and relax, causing some mirroring from Suvi. At this point Suvi had finished her tea and was now too enjoying the quiet, she had a thought, “would she mind if I rested my head on her chest?”. She didn’t know the answer but she forced herself to find out, she rolled slightly and guided her head over where she dropped it as lightly as she could onto Sara’s chest.

She didn’t get an answer, but what did happen was Sara slowed her breathing and started to play with Suvi’s hair.

“Suvi?”. She whispered. The tired Scot hummed to acknowledge her. “can it tell you something?”. Suvi again hummed but this time it was higher to display approval.

She took a breath before going into her monologue, “well, it doesn’t look there is a time as good as this so here I go. When I’m with you, things just seem right, I feel so calm and appreciated. I’ve never really had people listen to my problems like you do and you genuinely care about me. I did this for you not only as a-a show of appreciation but also because I wanted to make this something more, we might not be ready for a relationship but I wanted something to look at and know that it is going to grow”.

Suvi was frozen by Sara’s words, they were beautiful and meaningful, but most importantly they were real. She lifted her head so that she could turn it towards Sara’s face. Sara was looking nervous and tired at the same time. She could barely get her words out but she did in the end, “don’t worry Sara, I know what you mean and I couldn’t agree more”.

Things started to get hazy and her eyes were fighting to close, she lost, in the end and she allowed her eye lids to fall.

Sara noticed that she now had a sleeping Suvi on her, she wasn’t going to move an disturb her anytime soon so she too closed her eyes and let the tiredness take her too.


	9. breaking free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara gets mad and does something...strange

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you are enjoying this series at all, please leave a comment about which part you like most.
> 
> thanks for reading :)

The next morning, Suvi woke up in unfamiliar surroundings. She didn’t remember falling asleep in Sara’s bed but here she is was. To her horror, she realised she was lying on Sara’s stomach, feeling the up and down going along with her breathing. The horror was soon replaced with a feeling of calmness and happiness, so, she didn’t move for a while until she heard the groaning of Sara waking up next to her.

When Sara gained full awareness of the situation, she smiled at Suvi, though she couldn’t see. The memory of the night before brought her happiness and satisfaction. Suvi lifted her head from Sara’s chest and turned it round to look at her face. She saw the smile and could do nothing but smile back at her. She put her head back down for a minute while she continued to full wake up.

A moment later they were both panicked by the doors opening and to the sight of Lexi stood in the doorway. “oh…I didn’t know I was interrupting something, sorry”.

Without hesitation, Sara gestured her to come closer so that the door would close behind her. Her voice was still hoarse but she was able to speak. “what’s up Lexi?”.

She thought for a second as to what would be the best thing to say, “I just came to check in but from the looks of it you’re just fine”. She turned around to leave before she was interrupted by Sara.

“not a word to anyone, okay?”. Lexi winked back to reassure her.

She left the room and the doors closed behind her leaving two shook up women in the bed.

Sara looked to Suvi as she calmed down before asking if she wanted some breakfast, she did and she was also craving some coffee, thankfully Suvi was also wanting something to eat. The pair got out of bed and Sara went to her wardrobe to get ready, she asked Suvi to meet her in the galley in five minutes.

Suvi bounced back to the bunks while Sara got on her normal clothes, a blue and white initiative t-shirt and a pair of loose white cargo pants. Suvi on the other hand went for her usually work attire, a red a white lab coat and white pants.

Sara wasn’t expecting anyone to be in the galley but when she hopped in she saw Cora sat at the table with a coffee in her hands. She shifted her gaze from the table to Sara who had started to brew some coffee and some tea. Cora raised one eyebrow before speaking, “what’s got you in such a good mood?”. Sara locked up for a split second and panicked, “um, nothing, why do you ask?”.

“Well, your smiling, you look awake and you sound like you have been speaking for way to long”.

“I have been speaking for a while but there is nothing more than that”. She said sternly.

Cora let out a short scoff and said, “right, if you say so”.

As Sara was about to reprise, Suvi came through the door with a smile on her face and a spring in her step. She looked to Sara and then to the tea she was making and breathed in through her nose. She lent against the work top and stared into space for a while.

The tea was done brewing and Suvi picked it up and moved it to her mouth, Sara did the same with her coffee. They drank quickly and made their way to the bridge. When they got settled, Sara called PeeBee and Cora to the bridge to brief them.

After the briefing they headed to the armoury to get ready, Suvi started to read through the notes that she had Sam take down for her. She couldn’t focus though, she kept thinking of yesterday and what Sara had done for her. She could have done anything with her day but instead she decided that spending it with Suvi would be much more enjoyable. She needed to pay her back for the effort that she had put in.

It seemed again that she would need Lexi’s guidance to help her.

Sara, PeeBee and Cora were heading to the Kett stronghold on the hill to clear it and loosen their control of the area. The ride there was quiet as they had already done a lot of cleaning up in the area. The base was a series of bridges, surrounded by a forcefield that let to the large command tower.

They began the crawl to the tower, starting with the front door.

While they were doing that, Suvi had excused herself from the bridge and went to the med bay to find Lexi, she was at her desk as usual reading from a datapad. “Lexi, I need your help with something”.

Lexi moved her focus from the datapad to Suvi before asking what it was. “well, I wanted to think of a way of paying Sara back for what she did for me yesterday, I was hoping you could help me think of something”.

Lexi put her hand to her chin for a second while she made up her mind, “take a seat, I’m sure we can come up with something between us”.

While they were talking, the ground team were fighting up to the tower through waves and waves of Kett. They had to have some fun while they did it so they got up to some mischief and overloaded the shields on the base so now it wasn’t protected.

Back on the tempest Suvi and Lexi were brainstorming for ideas though none of them seemed to be quite right. She had alright thought about something to do with guns but they would be returning to the Nexus the next day so it wouldn’t really be viable. They would have to keep thinking for now.

The ground team were now about to enter the tower, they had taken down all of the Kett on the way and had an empty path. It was eerily quiet for something of this type. They found that they had to go down before they could go up. Hatch had opened in front of them, when they jumped down they found all of the Kett they had been expecting.

Getting rid of these took a little longer than they had been expecting due to the fact that they had been digging in for a while, it wasn’t hard, just took longer. When they finally pushed pashed them they found a room, a room that contained a kind of Kett that they had never seen before. This one could float and was covered by a shield being provided by a orb that orbited it.

They knew this was going to be tough. They found some cover and got to work, but things weren’t going the wah Sara would have liked. When she popped up to take a shot at the new Kett she would take a hit from somewhere else and when she popped up to take a shot either side she would take a hit from the other. It was getting infuriating and it wouldn’t be long until Sara lost her cool.

There was nothing she could do about it and she’d had enough of it. She stood up from behind the cover and conjured up all the biotic power that she could, something was off, and Cora to her right also saw this, something.

Her veins had started to go purple and her hands started to glow the same colour. She lost control of herself and proceeded to go on a rampage of unseen proportions, the Kett were sent flying left, right and center. Mangled, twisted bone lay lifeless on the floor, with the subordinates taken care of, she turned her attention to the new threat. She had one purpose in that moment, one thing and one thing only, kill it.

With one hand she took the orb and moved it away from the threat, without the orb, the shield around it disappeared leaving the Kett vulnerable. With her other hand she held the Kett still in place so that it couldn’t attack her back.

Now, with the Kett in the right place, she used the orb to repeatedly beat the Kett again and again until it went limp under her grasp. With that, she dropped both the Kett and the orb, then fell to her knees. She felt nauseas for a brief moment before regaining her senses.

Cora and PeeBee were off to the side where they had come in, they were awe struck and speechless. Cora had spent some time as an Asari huntress and never had she seen anything like that happen to anyone. Once they came back around they rushed over the Sara to see if she was ok, she was still on her knees.

Cora exclaimed, “Sara, are you alright?”.

Sara took a second before she spoke under her breath, “yeah, yeah I’m aright”. Cora and PeeBee helped to her to her feet, one on either side.

She felt heavy on her legs and she couldn’t really lift her arms so she took a minute to regain her strength before she tried to go on. The sensation eventually came back and she felt like herself. After conference with her teammates, they pushed on to the lift.

Back on the Tempest, Suvi and Lexi were still at a loss as to what she could do for Sara in return for what she did. They had tried many things but none of them seemed practical considering the circumstances. There was silence in the med-bay when Lexi spoke up. “are you any good at cooking?”. Suvi debated in her head for a second before admitting that while she wasn’t great, she could still make something at least.

She looked to Lexi in confusion waiting for her to explain her idea, “Sara spends a lot of time out in the field, don’t get fancy but I think she would happy if you made her some proper food”. That was it, it was simple but it was something that Sara would appreciate. “I like your thinking Lexi, thanks”.

“no problem, glad I could help”.

Suvi could finally focus on her notes and her work.

The ground team had found the lift and was now on the top floor of the base, about to turn it all off. It was a sight to behold so Sara spend a moment to just take it in before she ended it all then and there.

Their job was done so now they could return to the Tempest. The base was now quiet in a nice way, no low-level humming and banging in the walls and there was no Kett to be heard, so all was good. Sara was still feeling tired though so when they got back to the Nomad she asked Cora to drive back while she rested.

When they got back, Cora drove the Nomad back into the cargo bay and got out. Suvi and Lexi were on the balcony above them when Sara got out, suddenly, Sara felt really tired and her sight got blurry. She blacked out on the floor, much to the horror of the others. Cora picked her up and took her to the medbay and laid her on the bed.

Lexi hurried in, followed by Suvi on her heels. Cora tried to explain what had happened in the tower but she wasn’t making sense. Lexi figured this wasn’t something she could fix so instead she asked Sam to try and figure it out.

A moment of silence later and Sa rang over the comms, “Sara has drained all her energy during her outburst, she has lost that much energy and other things that she is now in a deep sleep, with the rate of recovery she should wake up sometime tomorrow”.

A wave of relief washed over the room at the news that it wasn’t too serious.

Sam chimed over the comms again after a few seconds and suggested that he show Cora’s memory to Lexi and Suvi. Cora agreed under the condition that it not hurt. One of the monitors turned on behind them and it started to play, it played from when they got through the door to see the new Kett, then through Cora’s point of view what it was that drove Sara mad. Then, almost like a montage, it all played through the main event.

Like they had been thinking the same thing, they both turned to her sleeping in the bed with a look of amazement on their faces. It was clear that she was capable of more than anyone had thought.

There was nothing more for Cora to do there so she left the medbay and went back to the bio-lab where she spent her time. Lexi and Suvi stayed in the medbay to do some more checks and make sure that there was nothing that they might have missed.

It was getting dark and they were both still there with Sara, Lexi was getting ready to turn in for the night but Suvi was going to stay there with her all night.

Lexi was confused that she wouldn’t want to do that but instead of asking why she just asked whether she was sure.

“I’m sure, thanks”.

Lexi smiled at Suvi and at the sight of good friendship on her way out. Suvi pulled herself from the chair in the corner and moved to the one next to the bed with Sara in. it hurt Suvi to see her like this, she had never seen Sara sleeping but with wasn’t quite that, this was more like an injury.

It was now silent in that room, breathing being the only thing that could be heard. Suvi let out a long sigh before she sank into the chair. Her thoughts began to wander and before she knew it she couldn’t help herself from thinking out loud.

Her voices was quiet and soft to the ear, “you know Sara, I was going to pay you back for what you did for me, you didn’t have to put in that time and effort but you did anyway. Guess it will have to wait for now but, thank you”.

What she didn’t know is that as soon as she started to talk, Sara’s brain woke up to her voice and she could hear what Suvi was saying. Her left hand, laying face up, opened. Much to Suvi’s embarrassment. She placed her hand on top and Sara’s hand locked their fingers together. 

She had nothing more to say, she put her head back and drifted off to sleep with her new favourite person by her side.


	10. recovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara is having a bad day and she doesn't really know why, but hey, she gets a day off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> these chapters are going to get a lot more inconsistent because i'm going back to college (british college). they haven't really been consistent in the first place but you know what i mean.
> 
> if you like the story then please leave a Kudos to let me know. :)

Sara woke up the next morning staring up at the ceiling, with no recollection of how she got there; the last thing she remembered was getting out of the Nomad. It was quiet, but not silent, the tapping of a screen was coming from the corner.

It was Lexi, sat at her desk, doing her work. She looked to her other side to see Suvi asleep in the chair, she smiled at the thought that she might be there for her. She also then noticed that her and Suvi’s hands were together.

Sara felt some extra pressure in her head and so let out a low groan, making Lexi jump as a result. She turned around to see a very pale Ryder.

“Sara, your awake! How do you feel?”.

Sara couldn’t think straight so it took her a minute to actually get her words together, “I feel…slow”.

“alright, that would be expected, do you feel any physical pain as of right now?”. Lexi added.

It took Sara another moment go get her words in order before replying, “no pain, just some pressure in my head”.

Lexi put on of her fingers to her lips while she thought about what she should do about it. She turned around to go and get some medicine and continued from the other side of the room, “okay, I’m going to give you some light painkillers, you need to stay in bed for a while until you can at least stand up”.

Sara just nodded at her in compliance. She took the medicine and then put her head back down onto the pillow.

From there the hours seemed to pass so slowly. As her brain got back into the swing of things, she started to remember things; first it was her rampage in the base the other day, then it was passing out in the cargo bay and then it was what Suvi said as she sat beside her last night. She turned to Suvi, still sleeping in the chair, and smiled in thankfulness.

She turned her head back to the roof and waited for the time to pass. It was nearly noon when Suvi woke up, she was still slumped in the chair like she was when she went to sleep last night.

It was quiet but it wasn’t silent, the sounds of typing was resonating from the corner, it was Lexi at her computer doing her work. She turned to Sara in the bed to see how she was doing, she was awake; she was staring into space, but she was awake. And she was still holding her hand.

“Sara…”. She whispered.

Sara turned her head to Suvi and grew a half smile on her face, “Suvi…”, “go and get something to eat, I’m not going anywhere”, she chuckled.

“are you sure? I can stay here if you want”.

“I’m sure, go and eat”.

Suvi pulled herself from the chair, she had basically melted to it and traipsed her way to the galley. There Cora was sat at the table with her lunch in her hands, she took no notice of Suvi while she ate but when she was done she started to inquire. “how is she?” she said, looking to Suvi.

Suvi turned around and lent on the work top while her tea brewed and her bread was toasting, she took a sigh and answered her question, “she is awake, but mentally she is really slow right now”.

“not too bad then…”. Cora replied.

Suvi let out a long yawn and confirmed under her breath.

As she finished making her tea, her toast popped up with a spring, much to her relief. She through herself down onto the bench and began the process of waking up.

She didn’t get a full night sleep last night, she had stayed awake for as long as she could watching over Sara until she fell asleep much later.

While Sara had the time, she had Kallo set the course for the Nexus and lift off in an hour. By the time she was done, she could hold a conversation for a little longer than before but it still wasn’t great.

Lexi began doing some simple check-ups and other tests to see if she was alright. She still couldn’t think right but she was physically was ok.

Suvi walked back into the medbay to see Sara trying to walk, she had gotten out of bed and was getting back to it, she wasn’t one to wait around for long. She could walk but her brain wasn’t keeping up so she needed to rest some more.

Lexi cut in to try and get her back in her bed but Sara interjected, requesting to be in her own bed. Suvi was still standing in the doorway watching what was going on, upon hearing Sara’s request she jumped in to help her.

She wrapped one of Sara’s arms around her neck and her right hand around Sara’s waist, one thing she hadn’t kept in mind is that she was still almost shirtless. Her skin was soft but her abs were well toned thanks to her training.

Suvi froze upon contact, she hadn’t planned on it going this way but it had done and it wasn’t going to be undone. Sara, now in a position to do so, put some of her weight onto Suvi and stood still. She looked to Lexi who wore a questionable expression on her face, “thank you Lexi”, she said.

Lexi then grew a smile and insisted that she only did her job.

The pair of them slowly hobbled over to Sara’s quarters and shuffled over to the bed. Suvi lowered her onto the bed like she had done once before. Sara moved herself to her normal position in the left of the bed and got comfortable. To her right was the datapad that she had left two days earlier, at least she could read something.

Suvi turned to her and in her quiet, soft voice stated that she needed to get to work on the readings and that she’d be back later. Sara sat up and pulled Suvi over to her. She did what she normally did and put their heads together for a silent thanks you. Suvi smiled and got up to leave, leaving Sara alone to her thoughts.

She was rather upset at this point, and she didn’t know why, she had come to terms with her father’s death and her brother’s condition, so to her she was just sad.

They were on their way to the Nexus, they needed to meet with and update Tann on the way things were going. She knew she was going to need to walk and so she felt the urge to try and walk. She began with holding onto the head board and just trying to stand, then when she was able to free stand, she began the recovery of her ability to walk.

It started with sliding her feet over the floor to get her legs moving, then it was short steps which was the hardest part and then came the normal steps, but just slower than normal.

She took the opportunity to ramble her way back to the medbay and make sure that she was able to continue doing so.

She hobbled through to the doors to see an astounded looking Asari stood before her. The look on her face was a mix of amazement and confusion. “wow, that didn’t take log at all now did it?”.

Sara, trying to hide her Sadness, fabricated a smile and said, “it will take more than that to keep me down”.

“can you walk okay?”. Lexi asked back.

“I can walk, just slowly”.

Lexi took a step forward and put her hand on Sara’s shoulder, “don’t push yourself too hard then”.

Sara simply let out a chuckle and thanked her for her help.

Feeling a bit better about herself, she took the time to do the much-needed rounds of the ship and talk to everyone.

Liam and Vetra were in their rooms doing what it is that they do, Gill was doing some touch ups on the Nomad. She had just seen Lexi and both Kallo and Suvi were both on the bridge. leaving Drack who was of course doing work on his guns.

She had nothing to do now, but being bored was infuriating to her, so emails It was. She dealt with the short personal ones when she had the time but always refused to do the long ones because any that needed to be that long were better talked about in person.

There was heartfelt thank you from the people of the Nexus for her help, talking about loved ones and friends. The rest was long winded reports and they were going to have to wait.

By the time she was done, it wouldn’t be long until they got back to the Nexus to meet with Tann but she had some time.

She pulled herself from the chair and asked Sam to lock her door for her, after a brief moment, she could hear them engage from the metal confines of the door. She took herself to her wardrobe and pulled out one of the boxes that were sat in the bottom. It had the word “tribute” written on the side.

She hesitantly pulled the tabs apart to reveal the number of special objects sat on the middle: an Irish pendant that reminded her of her grandfather, a braceleted that reminded her of her mother, a one-handed axe that reminded her of her father and a specially designed pistol that reminded her of her brother.

There was no reason right now to be looking at them other than the fact that it had been a while and she made sure to never wait too long. Her thoughts were interrupted when Kallo came through the comms, “were going to be at the Nexus soon, so you should get ready”.

“thanks Kallo, can you ask Suvi to come down here for me”.

While she waited, she changed her clothes into something clean as she had been wearing the current ones for 2 days now. Even a change of clothes made all the difference and she felt all that much better. Realising that she had left the box out, she quickly closed it and pushed it back into hiding.

At this point Suvi came through the doors and upon seeing Sara put a shocked expression on her face. Sara smile back at her, not because of the confusion but because seeing Suvi made her happy.

“Suvi! Its nice to see you, I was hoping that you could accompany me to my meeting when we get back”.

Suvi stared blankly for second before she understood the request, “me? Why me, there as other people better for that…”.

“I know, but I want you to come with me, when we get there, you can go to the tech labs and when I’m done just come back and meet me. Besides, my walking isn’t great”.

“well, if that’s what you want then sure ill go with you”, she said still with a smile.

Sara walked over the rail around the edge of her room and gestured Suvi to join her. Together, they stood for 10 minutes looking out at the stars whizzing by at faster than light speed until the rock of slowing.

When they were docked, Sara and Suvi hopped on the tram that took them to the ops centre. Sara had her eyes firmly set on Suvi, she could help but notice. “what’s that face for?”. Sara grinned before replying, “no particular reason”.

Suvi let out a chuckle through her nose before turning away.

Stood outside Tann’s office, the pair had a short hug before they parted ways. Sara stood and watched while Suvi walked away back to the tram.

The meeting lasted for multiple hours, now Sara was just feeling worse than she did before and it wasn’t helped by the fact that she was tired. Being tired just meant that her negative emotions were exaggerated past what they were.

When she trudged out of Tann’s office Suvi was stood waiting for her, “Suvi? Aren’t you supposed to be in the tech labs?”.

Suvi, sensing that Sara wasn’t right, took a step closer to her and placed one of her hands on her shoulder. “we were done a while ago but I didn’t want to leave you”. She said softly.

Sara widened her eyes while she looked on glad yet bad about herself because she had waited for her, “Suvi, you didn’t have to, you could have just gone back to the Tempest without me”.

“I didn’t want to, I wanted to walk back with you so here I am”.

A tear grew in one of Sara’s eyes as she took a step and pulled Suvi in for a tight hug. “thank you Suvi, really thank you”.

Back on the Tempest, Sara was ready for bed, the meeting had defeated her and she needed the rest. She Sat on her bed on a mess because the tiredness made the emotion more intense.

Someone buzzed the door, asking to be let in. a while ago Sara had made it so that the sensor would look for a gesture and open when it was detected. Sara waved at the door and it hissed open.

It was Suvi in her pj’s. presumably ready to get into bed. She made her way in towards Sara with Small steps, “I’m just checking in on you, you seem upset today, making sure your OK”.

As Sara still didn’t know how to explain herself, she went with the tried and true, “I don’t know Suvi, I can’t explain it. Thanks for checking in on me”.

Suvi grew a genuine smile at her and turned to leave. She was interrupted by Sara half way out. “Suvi? Do you think you can stay in here with me tonight?”. Sara’s face was blank and Suvi didn’t know how to answer it, she wasn’t against it but she wasn’t sure if she should or not.

“are you sure?” she said still slightly puzzled.

Sara was looking at her with a face that kind of just said, “help please”.

Suvi sighed and began to make her way over to Sara in the bed, she could see a visible change in her face, it was more relaxed she seemed to not be as upset.

She climbed into the bed next to Sara and made herself comfortable. Sara didn’t say anything just yet because frankly, she didn’t know what.

They needed to go to the next vault location the next day, but she couldn’t sleep. Not matter how hard she tried, she could only sit in the darkness.


	11. second contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> an encounter with another species goes better than the first time and Sara doesn't really want to get up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you are enjoying the interaction between Sara and Suvi then please leave a kudos, i appreciate the ones that i have.
> 
> if The_anwarrior is still reading then let me know your thoughts on my work.
> 
> thanks for bearing with my inconsistency with this. :)

An alien voice echoed throughout the bridge as everyone gave looks of confusion to each other, “tove jagalsh do!”. A pause, and then again, “tove jagalesh do!”.

Ideas were being thrown around from person to person when Kallo cut in, “they sent us a nav point!”.

“head there and touch down”.

She turned around to leave the bridge when she was cut off by Cora, “you’re not seriously going out there on your own right?”.

“I have to, its on me for first contact, but if anything funny happens to be then please delete it”. She said as she walked around Cora.

They couldn’t see her now so all they could do was talk among themselves, apart from Drack, he was still in the galley.

Cora and Liam were talking military stuff and what could go wrong in that respect, Kallo and PeeBee were talking about exploration. But Suvi wasn’t in the mood for talking, Sara was on a new planet with an undiscovered species with unknown intentions. She was worried for Sara’s safety considering the experience they had with the Kett.

An hour or so went by and nobody had heard a thing, the others had left the bridge leaving Kallo and Suvi, then as sudden as It always was, a familiar voice rang from the comms. “guys, I’m going to be another hour or so but it’s going well so don’t worry”.

Her voice was calm and she had said not to worry so Suvi allowed herself to slump in her chair while she waited for Sara’s return.

Another hour later and the alarm sounded as the doors to the cargo bay opened to reveal Sara, stood along side one of the new species they had just met. Most of the crew were sat around the nomad exchanging things about themselves when the focus shifted.

Each and everyone of the crew were frozen for a second before they all erupted in surprise. They went up one by one to the new alien to greet it, they were about to start asking questions when Sara called a crew meeting.

She announced to the crew, “guys, this is Jaal, he is Angaran and will be joining the crew”. Everyone else exploded with questions they needed to get out of their systems.

While everyone asked their questions, Sara took the opportunity to phase out for a minute, the hours of meeting and conferring took it out of her, she couldn’t deal with long Social events without getting tired quickly.

She was brought back into reality due to the silence that now surrounded her, “um, we have two new planets we need to visit and things we need to do while we are there if we are go get into the vault on Aya”.

There were a few groans from around the table but ultimately no real objections. She dismissed the crew and told Jaal that he could set up where he wanted as long as it wasn’t taken.

She caught up with Suvi on the way out and made their way to Sara’s quarters so that Sara could catch her up with what happened that day. 2 hours and a long conversation later, Sara still needed to update the Nexus on the event so she reluctantly excused herself and told Suvi that she could stay there for as long as she wanted to.

The meeting with Tann took way longer than it needed to and now it was late afternoon, they had things to do and so she spoke with Kallo about which of the 2 planets they should go to first. She concluded that the best bet would be to go to Veold (the ice planet) first as to get it out of the way. They would lift off that evening and fly through the Tempest’s night cycle.

Suvi had gone back to work on the bridge so Sara spent another few minutes of her time talking with her best friend. The Angara had allowed some of their information on the planet to be passed on to the crew and Suvi was ecstatic at all of the new things she was learning.

Sara didn’t stick around to keep her distracted and took herself to her quarters to get some of her emails answered. Most of the m were personal ones from the people from the Nexus and from the outpost on Eos. Sara was happy to get these emails because it reminded her of the fact that people appreciated what she was doing.

The other ones however were all reports and as always, she refused to answer them for the same reason, the ones that needed to be that long were better done in person.

This took her to the evening when the Tempest left Aya and began to journey to Veold. Sara pulled herself away from the computer and began the hunt for something to eat. She walked through the doors of the galley to see Suvi sat at the table with a cup of tea in one hand and her head with the other.

It didn’t take her away from the search of something to eat but she still asked her what was wrong, “Suvi? What’s up?”.

It took a moment before Suvi took notice, her head jumped from her hand with a look of confusion, “what? Oh, just really tired, that’s all”.

Sara found a packet of toast in the cupboard, threw it in the toaster and turned to the red head sat at the table, “well, if you’re that tired then you can stay in my bed with me tonight instead of that small bunk…”.

Suvi debated in her head for a second, she had done it before and she had woken up feeling better than she had done in a long time, so with her head looking down, “if you’re sure then I wouldn’t mind but…”.

Sara knew that she felt uncomfortable so she didn’t push the matter, she finished her toast and made her way out of the room with it. As she left she turned to Suvi and just said, “the doors are open if you feel like it later”.

Suvi shifted her gaze to Sara but before she could even say anything she had already gone back to her quarters.  Now she had a dilemma, sleep in her own bed where she will be comfortable enough, or sleep in the big double bed where it will be warm, spacious and be with someone who she is slowly getting more and more close with.

She wasn’t sure but, in the end, the thought of having so much more room and being so much comfier got the better of her and she made her mind up. She had her tea to finish and some more work to do, but when she was done she knew where she was going.

Sara had realised while eating that when she had been talking with Jaal she had only really talked about the Angara as a whole and not really much about him as an individual. She ate the last of her toast and went to look for him.

When she finally found him, he was in the cargo bay with most of the other crew, the others had taken an interest in him and weren’t shot on questions to ask him.

Sara decided that actually it would be best for her to just listen to the conversation from the railings above them and not add to the chaos that was her crew. She learned some interesting things in the hour that she had stayed there such as the fact that the Angara have a lot of electrostatic energy in their systems or that they are really resistant to the cold. Either way, knowledge is good, but she still didn’t know much about Jaal himself.

It would have to wait for another time, it was passed six and that meant that it was time for her to get some time for herself. Upon getting back to her quarters, Suvi was on the bed with one of her datapads, she was off the clock now and was winding down a little bit.

Sara grabbed her own datapad from her desk and made her way to the bed, she slipped off her shoes and threw herself onto the bed next to Suvi. It had been a long day and now she just wanted to get bit of rest.

She was reading one of books that she had brought with her from the Milky way, she was half way through but it would take her a lot longer to get through it all. She lost the time in the book and by the time she came back into reality it had gone past evening and was now night time. She was tired now and ready for some sleep.

Suvi was still reading on the other side of the bed but Sara knew she probably didn’t mind, she moved herself down to give herself enough space to lie down and dropped her head on the pillow below her and she close her eyes, it didn’t take her long to fall asleep.

Suvi too was lost in her work and was enjoying the things she had learned but when she woke up from her daydream it had gone dark. She looked around the room in confusion until she saw Sara asleep beside her. She had been in her work for so long that she didn’t even notice that Sara had gotten into bed.

She put down the data pad and headed for the bun to get herself her PJ’s. the ship was almost silent, it was just the ship systems running behind the walls. Everyone else was sleeping and the bunks were a mix of breathing and snoring. She would appreciate the quiet of Sara’s room.

Now in her PJ’s she felt much better than she did before, the red and white uniform was a bit too tight for her to be in for long durations. She slipped from the bunks and floated through the doors to Sara’s room. To her now, the bed was looking even more appealing.

It was already warm due to Sara being there already and it was becoming a kind of bliss for her because of her work being demanding on her mentally.

Before she went to sleep, she looked to Sara for a second. She asked herself a question, “do you know how important you are becoming to me now?”. She looked cute while she slept, her muscles were relaxed and her face was not as uptight as it was when she was around the crew. She always tried to be made of stone and always logical, but she wasn’t.

Now wasn’t the time for dwelling on feelings though, now was the time for some much-needed sleep. Like Sara, it didn’t take her long to drift into peaceful sleep.

The next day, Sara woke up feeling nice and refreshed as she usually did when she slept with Suvi in the bed. As she brought herself back into the real world, she noticed that she wasn’t in the same position as she was when she went to sleep last night, she was spooning Suvi. The big spoon to be exact, the atmosphere in the room was absolutely beautiful and she was going to cherish it.


	12. Veold and taking a step

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the team get started on Veold and Sara takes the step she has been looking for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter neither contains much from the story or much speech, it is mostly story that i wanted to put in. some of it is likely to not make sense but hay ho.

The landing on Veold was less than satisfactory, the ice gave way under the enormous weight of the Tempest an so they needed to reposition and touch down again to make sure they didn’t sink.

The ground team was not ready, they had their armour on and their weapons in hand, but they weren’t ready for the cold.

The wind and the cold would be a killer if they didn’t get to the resistance base quickly so they picked up their pace as fast as possible.

While they made their way to the base, the crew on the ship were taking readings and going through them, getting as much as they could out of it. The weather on this is something that they had never seen before, the temperature was so low that it would instantly freeze any liquid that wasn’t heated from the get go.

The ground team were really feeling this effect, if it was not for the heaters that the Angara had put out they would already be frozen solid.

As the team trudged into the resistance base, the Angara all stopped and stared while they walked into the mountain. A sigh of relief fell over the squad as the temperature rose to a safe level for the suits to cover.

None of the Angara seemed too happy to see them coming in but Sara was determined to change that with what she had to offer them in their fight against the Kett.

the more they heard of troubles on Veold the more Sara wanted to help them to deal with the Kett on the planet but she heard one major problem though, the Kett had a big base on one of the mountains that they would have to deal with.

They wouldn’t be able to traverse so a forward station would be much needed if they wanted to get anywhere. With all the information they needed, they got to work helping out.

Back on the ship, everything was calm, they were still going through readings but they were in no rush to get through them so most of the time they were just reading and writing but talking about different things between themselves. It was during these times that Kallo really didn’t have much to do but sit and watch over the ship and even half of that was done by Gill.

Suvi always loved these parts because there was always so much more to know and so much more to find out about everything.

Drack was quite the cook as it turned out, much to the surprise of the rest of the crew and he often made food for everyone at the end of the day. He enjoyed cooking due to the fact that he had to cook for his grand daughter and the rest of his clan back in the day.

Cora looked for the Asari ark in her spare time, she had spent time with the Asari as a huntress and she wanted to find it. Only the human ark made it to the Nexus she was adamant that she was going to find another one. Luckily for her, some of things she had heard led her to Veold in the first place so she was going to take a look for it while she was there.

The first day on Veold on was wrapping up and the ground team wanted to get back. The weather had taken it out of her and she was yearning for a hot shower and something to eat. She was missing Suvi on top of it, during the day she had seen the relationships the Angara had with each other and it actually got to her, she was missing that someone in her life that she wanted.

Cora wanted to continue the search for the ark but at this point she wanted to do it from the confines of the warm Tempest. They had found some of the false signals from the transponder but none of them were the actual thing.

Liam didn’t really have a spare time, he spent most of his time in the research room and talking with the other crew, so he was probably looking for someone to talk to that wasn’t the two he had been stuck with all day.

The door to the cargo bay slid open and Sara drove the Nomad straight up the middle into the ship. The others weren’t appreciative of the entrance as it allowed the cold air in and take up the warm air they had. The door closed behind them and they raced out of the nomad to get out of their armour.

Sara pried her armour off piece by piece like she always did but this time some of it was frozen together so badly that it barely moved, like her fingers, they were frozen together forcing her to use some of her biotics to get them loose.

Out of her armour and already feeling lighter, she went for a shower. Sara was much fonder of baths but considering what she had, a shower would do. The water was a feeling to behold, it warmed her up to the core, washed away the physical stress of the day and allowed her to drift off into her thoughts.

During her work earlier she saw some things that she would like to implement into the Tempest and into the Nomad such as: make her quarters completely soundproof; so that she could do anything and not have anyone hear it, adjust the doors on the Nomad so that they could be taken off or slid back; to help with the hot planets, have the sensor on the door to her quarters automatically let in certain people; so that Suvi and Lexi could come in any time and have a ‘do not disturb’ light put above her door so that she could go in and not have to worry.

She asked Sam to note that all down as she said it aloud to herself to make sure that she got everything that she needed.

She was slipping off further and further into her thoughts, it led to her remembering some of the things she had seen earlier such as the bond between the Angara. A foreign feeling took over her body, she imagined herself having that kind of bond with Suvi, considering the amount they had gotten to know each other.

Suvi allowed Sara to be herself: shy, quiet and ultimately heavily introverted. She wanted someone like that in life and in the end someone like that she could settle down with. Suvi seemed like the perfect person as she also shares some of these traits too.

Then, as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared and she arrived back into reality. She was still warm and still in the shower, but something was different. She now had a different perspective on her feelings for that particular scot she knew well.

She didn’t plan on going out anywhere else that day so she went straight for the Pj’s. they were the comfiest thing she owned and she wasn’t ashamed of wearing them around, well she didn’t at home so she would have to see how it goes around the rest of the crew.

Armed with her new feelings she roamed the ship for a bit while she let her confidence catch up, when she was confident enough to act, she coursed for the bridge.

Suvi was in her chair going over the readings the ground crew had gathered while they were out. Most of them were surprising to her due to the nature of the planet being unprecedented. She had never seen anything like it and she was stuck in her thoughts when she was dragged into the real world by Sara putting a hand on her shoulder.

She turned her head to see Sara with a smile on her face and her Pj’s on.

 

“hey Sara, how was it?”, she beamed.

“shh, stand up”.

She did what she was told and got up from her chair to face Sara who now, had the look of determination in her eyes.

“what’s this- “, she was cut off by Sara putting one of her fingers over her mouth as she began to whisper.

“I’ve been doing some thinking and feeling lately and I wanted to tell you but if you want to know more then you will have to wait a little bit”, she leaned forward and placed a short kiss on Suvi’s forehead and turned to leave before she could even say anything in return.

What had just happened? Suvi didn’t know. But she did know something. In that one instance, she saw something that she hadn’t seen before, all the signs became clear.

Sara was so much more than she was seeing before: She sat and listened to her ramble on about science, she didn’t poke her with personal questions and most importantly allowed her to be herself around each other.

Why hadn’t she seen this before, it was all so clear yet she didn’t notice, was it on purpose or was it actually subtle. There was some thinking she needed to do first.

Later that night, Sara had gone to sleep early as she had been doing over the last few days. The terrible cold and then the rapid relaxing properties of a hot shower probably knocked her for six.

Suvi was thinking on what Sara had said, about her being welcome in her bed. It was warm and cosy, much better than her bunk. She looked past what had happened before and climbed in next to Sara. Suvi still said the same thing to herself, that Sara looked cute when she slept because her face was so much more relaxed.

she tried to sleep and tried again but not matter what, she couldn’t. She was consumed with the events of that day, it replayed over and over again until her body gave out and fell asleep too.

 ---

The next morning was an early start like most other mornings but this one was strange, this time it was Suvi who awoke first and not Sara. She felt something around her, she looked down to see Sara’s arm over her and then her legs intertwined with each other.

She didn’t want to disturb Sara, she looked so peaceful. She put her head back down and before she knew it she was nodding back off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "knocked for six" often means completely something, so in this context it means 'made her so tired that she fell straight to sleep".


	13. removing the heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the base on Veold has been dealt with and the Angara have one of their cities back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tell me what you think if the way i'm writing this, do you want me to go into more detail with the ground team while they are out or do you want me to keep it brief like i have been doing?

By the time Suvi woke again it was late, Sara was no longer in the bed and the sun was past the window. There was a datapad next to her with something written on it, she gave her eyes a minute to adjust before attempting to read what it said.

“good morning Suvi, you looked so peaceful so I didn’t want to wake you and I told the others to leave you be until you woke up. I also asked Sam to tell Drack when you woke up, he said he’d make you some breakfast. Hope you slept well x”.

An uncontrollable smile grew on her face at the consideration she was given. Sara was out there in the cold and wind, fighting the Kett but she decided to leave her in the bed where it was warm and spacious. What did she do to deserve knowing Sara at all?

She climbed from the bed and took herself to the galley where Drack was waiting with some hot tea and toast on the table. She stretched out and dropped on the bench next to her breakfast but before she began to eat she thanked Drack for taking the time. He simply laughed it off like he did with everything else.

Out on the ground, the team was preparing for assault on the Kett base on the mountain. They had spoken with the resistance leaders to figure out the way they were going to go about it. They would go in through the entrance in the back and then make their way to the top once they got inside.

The tunnel leading the entrance was festering with the Kett, despite the fact that it was guarded by a shield. It took them an hour just to get the shield and going by that for a baseline, Sara concluded that it would probably take all day to get to the top. She was not looking forward to it.

Now through the shield they approached a secure area that they also needed to shoot through. This took multiple hours and many pushes to accomplish. It was either go the full way or not do it at all, Sara was not one for giving in to a fight.

The further they went into the base, the harder the resistance until they reached the tower, at this point none of them were pleased to be there but they knew they had more Kett to kill and that was becoming motivation enough at that point.

They had gone through more Kett than they could count and there was only going to be more of them, so, once more unto the breach it was.

It was eerily silent in the base like it was the first time, it wasn’t going to fool her for the second time. She knew as soon as she went into the floor below, they would be waiting for them. Along with the specialised Kett that that had been coined the Ascendant guarding the main part of the base.

The door opened below them as they prepared for more of a fight ahead. First Sara jumped down, followed by Cora and then Jaal one by one.

They began the push to the centre through the remaining forces, mainly anointed with heir mini-guns. Sara held a person grudge against these since her incident back on Eos a while ago.

Due to the cover of the Kett in the corridor, it took them another hour when it should have taken half that time. She was sick of this constant slow down so she vowed there and then to find a way around it.

Now through the doors to the main hall they find what they were looking for, the ascendant. It was floating above the centre of the room, Sara dropped her weapon and began to tunnel vision for the target.

She didn’t have control of It, she felt as though she could stop if she wanted to but when it was happening she couldn’t do anything. The same thing that happened the first time was happening again, but it was only her arms and her eyes.

The veins were going dark purple and her eyes were glowing brighter than ever before. With one swing of her arm, she took the orb away from the ascendant and hit him with it causing it to fly into one of the walls. With the other one she reached out and grabbed it, streams of purple flames left her hand and engulfed it.

Like the first time, it crushed the target and left it in a pile of mangled bone and muscles, not resembling the original life form. As she fell from the effect, she didn’t feel tired this time, a little sore but not tired and she could still think straight so she went right for the next thing. The landing pads.

One of the things that the Kett were using the fight on the planet were bringing in troops on ships so getting rid of the landing zones would cut them off from coming back in and setting back up.

With the heart removed from the Kett Veold war machine, the team headed for the final objective.

Back on the Tempest, Kallo was trying to get some information out of Suvi about what happened last night. She was being tight lipped about it, partly because she didn’t want to talk about it and partly because she simply didn’t know why Sara did what she did.

The questioning was getting on her nerves so left without saying anything, she slid down the ladder to Sara’s quarters. It was locked automatically but before she could turn to do anything else, Sam came through on her comms, “Sara gave me permission to open her quarters for you if you would like to enter”.

A second later the locks whined on the inside and the doors hissed open, as she walked in the doors closed behind her. This was becoming something familiar to Suvi now, she was sleeping in her with Sara even though there was nothing serious going on which she found strange, but it sure beats her bunk with the others.

She liked how peaceful it was in there, and how the windows made it so calming for her. Due to Kallo asking questions, it made her start to ask questions too, what was she thinking? What was she feeling? Something was up but she didn’t know, but what she did know is that she could get used to this kind of deal.  Someone looking out for her seemed nice to have.

She sat herself on the bed where she had been sleeping and looked back at the datapad from that morning and smiled, she knew something was going to happen but she would have to see.

The ground team were done for the day, they had taken down the Kett base and cleared the Kett from the old Angaran city. But they weren’t done, they still had plenty to do the next day such as activating the monoliths, activating the vault and then setting down an outpost out of the way of the Angara.

Finally back the Tempest, Sara set about repeating what she did yesterday, a nice shower and then see her favourite red headed scot.

After her shower she wandered into her quarters in the hunt for Suvi to see her lying on the bed reading, she knew Suvi really got into her reading so she probably didn’t know that she was even there.

She lied down on the bed next to her and turned her head to the side so that she could see her. She was so focused on her reading so that she took no notice of the world around her and Sara found it adorable.

Sara chuckled to herself before getting back out of bed and going for something to eat. While she was in the galley, the thought crossed her mind that Suvi mightn’t have eaten either considering that she was reading. She made her self and Suvi some toast and took it back to her room.

She sat back on the bed and held the plate in front of Suvi’s face to get her attention and for a bit of a laugh.

Suvi snapped out of her trance and moved her eyes down to see the toast, she then moved her head the side to see Sara staring at her with a smile on her face. She furrowed her brow in return before taking hold of the plate in front of her.

They were still looking at each other in silence and then simultaneously they both began to laugh between themselves.

They laughed for another minute before digging into their ‘meal’, Sara knew she could offer something better than that, but it would just have to wait.

It didn’t take them long to get through it, Sara took the plates back and returned to the bed. She was shattered and needed some sleep. She gave Suvi another kiss on the forehead before lying down in her normal position.

Without too much of a fight, she drifted off into peaceful sleep, that was until she woke up for no reason in the middle of the night, Suvi was asleep and it was dark so she did the logical thing and tried to get back to sleep.

But to no avail, no matter what she tried, she couldn’t get back to sleep for the life of her, so a quick walk it would be.

The ship was dimly lit, light enough for those still up but not too dark to disturb the ones who had gone to sleep. It was also so quiet, the humming  electricals in the walls being the only thing to be heard, she thought she had done this once before at some time though it didn’t matter, it was about right now.

The observation deck was her place, it allowed her a great view of the sky and the rainbow of lights that streaked out for as far as the eye could see. It was beautiful and left Sara completely breathless at the sight. She had never seen anything like it, she had seen the aurora borealis back on earth but even that didn’t come close to this, nowhere near.

She was lost in the moment, there and then she wasn’t in her own mind. Flashing before her eyes was everything she had seen since she got here, all the distant stars and the ones she had seen going passed her window.

The next second she was back on the Tempest looking out of the window. A sigh escaped her as she turned to head back to her bed. It was colder now than it was when she got up. Either that or shed been up longer than she thought she had.

Her quarters were warm though and the sight of Suvi sleeping comfortably put a smile on her face and had a weird relaxing effect that she could say that she had experienced before.

Her bed was still warm in the imprint of where she had been lying earlier, she put her left arm around Suvi beside her and drifted off into slumber.


	14. an end and and a beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things get wrapped up on Veold and Sara starts to put her plan into action.

Sara woke up the next morning to Suvi sleeping peacefully next to her, as usual she was wrapped around her as a big spoon, it helped her to sleep better like that.

The happiness wasn’t long lasting though as she realised that she need to go and active the monoliths today as well as do the vault as well. It was going to happen but it would have to wait for her to have breakfast, she wasn’t going to function otherwise.

She waited for Suvi to awaken from her slumber and roll over to check on her. Sara smiled at her and placed her hand on her head. The pair remained there for another few minutes while they woke up.

Their breakfast wasn’t as nice as she had wanted it to be, being out in the cold was not something she was looking forward to after the last two days. She was reluctant to leave the comforts of the ship at this point.

She gave Suvi a kiss on the head and left the galley to get ready, leaving Suvi by herself to her thoughts. It was short lived however as it was quickly interrupted by Drack coming back in, this was where he hung out after all.

With nothing else to do, she took herself back to Sara’s quarters and got back into bed so she could read the datapad she had been reading the night before, prior to her hilarious interruption from Sara. When she read. She lost track of time, she always got so interested in it that her brain stopped paying attention to her surroundings and before she knew it Sara was coming through on the comms

“well be back soon, we have activated the vault and are now just setting up the outpost, see you all soon”. Suvi sighed in relief, it made her happy to know that Sara was ok since she had seen what the remnant could do to person.

 She picked off where she had left it got back to reading her data, it was all so interesting, so interesting in fact that her brain didn’t tell that it had heard the Nomad come back up the ramp into the ship.

Sara was done with this planet for now but she still had things to do elsewhere, she needed to finish getting her ideas together as to how she was going to ask Suvi out and make it official. Sara was no good with feelings, she felt strong about her feelings but she was always too nervous about talking about them, leaving many things unsaid, feelings unshown and actions never taken.

She wasn’t going to let it defeat her again. Once she was out of her armour it was onto her omni tool to get Kallo to begin the journey to the Nexus, she told him that it was for a resupply run which would actually be happening but she knew that it was mainly to get her plan into action.

That night, she did what she normally did and went to sleep early so that she could get a good night’s sleep but she also did it because she knew she was probably going to wake up during the night and instead of going for a walk, she would be finishing up her plans. One thing was getting to her though, she had to inform the rest of the crew of her plan to avoid bumps as she carried it out.

How would she do it? How would they react? And most importantly, could they keep it a secret from Suvi?

Exactly according to the plan, she woke up in the middle of the night when everyone had gone to bed, including Suvi who had stayed up a little later than usual, though Sara didn’t know that.

She carefully pulled herself away from Suvi so that she wouldn’t wake her up, her room was cold but she never let anything like that stop her, since her time of Veold this was nothing to her.

She sat herself down in her chair and began to type her first email, it was to Dr Aridana asking her for a favour, it read “Dr Aridana, me and my team will be returning to the Nexus in the following day but I need a favour from you, I need you to keep Suvi busy for the day while I make some changes on the something things. Please get back to me when you can, thanks, Sara Ryder”. She sent it off and began to write the next one.

The next one was to Gill who she needed to make the changes to the nomad, it went as follows, “Gil, while we are back on the Nexus I need a favour from you, I would like you to adjust the doors on the Nomad so that they can be slid down or completely removed. Suvi is not to be told on any circumstances, thanks, Sara”. She set it to be sent closer the morning as to not wake him and to not act too quickly.

She figured she wouldn’t have the time to get all of her plans done with the time she had so she went for one more thing, some flowers. A trail would lead her to the Nomad where she would be waiting to take her out.

The person she was going to trust her with this was Lexi, it seemed like the type of thing that she would enjoy. Lexi’s email began, “Lexi, you already know about my feelings for Suvi so thankfully I won’t have to explain them to you, but I need you to do me a favour, when we get back on the Nexus I need some flowers to make a trail from, long enough to get from my quarters to the Nomad. Don’t worry if you can’t find any, thanks, Sara”.

With the last important email out she typed one more that would be sent to the rest of the crew, detailing what was going on over the next few days so that nobody was confused or going around asking questions to a particular person”. She struggled to write it, she wanted to hide her feelings from the others until she was sure that it was going to work but unless she wanted it to definitely go wrong then she needed to.

It was poorly worded and obscure but that was good enough.

She got back into bed and wrapped her arm around Suvi like she normally did and fell back off to sleep thinking, “I hope this is the beginning of something beautiful…”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short story stuff, just to get the story to move along :)


	15. getting the ball rolling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara gets what she needs to carry out her plan, but not without a moment of panic.

Sara woke up in bed that morning to not see Suvi but instead to see a note in her place, she didn’t try to read it yet because she was still waking up. As time went on her sight got more focused and she started to think, and due the thinking started to worry too. What if Suvi found something out she shouldn’t have? She’d have to wait and see.

She rolled over and picked up the note, it said, “good morning Sara, I tried to wake you but you didn’t want to budge so I left you there in peace. Anyway, Dr Aridana wanted me to come by and help her with some things today so I probably won’t be back until tonight. Enjoy your day”.

It was signed off with a smiley face and the letter S. Sara breathed a sigh of relief, Dr Aridana got the email and had taken Suvi off her hands. She didn’t hesitate to get of bed and check if she had gotten any emails in return.

She had too many to glance over so she had to read them one by one, the first five were Lexi, Gill and Dr Aridana acknowledging the requests and the others ones acknowledging the fact that they understood what was happening.

A smile grew on Sara’s face, she was getting the ball rolling. Breakfast wasn’t a concern for her at that point with all that would be going on. The first job was to see who was still on the ship. Kallo was on the bridge, PeeBee was in her escape pod, Cora was in the chem lab, Jaal was in the engineering room, Vetra was in the armoury, Liam was nowhere to be seen so she assumed he’d left for a while leaving one unaccounted for Krogan.

On her way to the galley, Sara realised she had missed one big step out of her plan, she was asking Suvi to be her girlfriend but she hadn’t thought of anything for dinner, Drack was going to have to be her saving grace.

The doors slid open to reveal Drack sat at the table with a rifle in his hand, Sara now in a panic jumped straight into it, “Drack, if I can get you some ingredients can you make me something nice in a few days?”.

Drack raised an eyebrow and began to chuckle, “of course I can, remember who your talking to”.

Sara simply exclaimed her thanks and took off towards the cargo bay, she needed to leave the ship and began the hunt for some nice ingredients for Drack.

The others in on her plan were already out on the hunt for the things she had asked them to find, Gil was in the engineering department looking for the rails that she would need to allow the doors of the Nomad to slid down over the step. He was having a hard time finding them in the mess that was the storage area.

He had already looked through most of it and was starting to worry, what if he couldn’t find them? It would put a big spanner in Sara’s works and but he didn’t want to let it happen. The further he got though the boxes, the worse he felt as the chances were getting lower, that was until he was startled by the sound of the doors opening on the other side of the room.

It was a worker with a couple of boxes, which gave him an idea, he want back to looking until the worker left the room. Once he was alone again he wandered over to the boxes and opened them both, in one box was some bolts that would come in handy and in the other was exactly what he was looking for.

He didn’t hesitate to nab them from the boxes and head back but not before leaving a note behind him so that the crew knew that they were just disappearing into thin air. With everything he needed he hurried back to the Tempest to begin his work.

Lexi was on a mission to find her some flowers for Sara like she had asked her too. She thought that hydroponics might be her best bet so that’s where she went. She was lucky, they were adding some more plants and flowers to the facility and so there was already some out.

As a psychologist she had learned to have a way with words, she approached the worker and got to work. Before she knew it, she was walking away with enough flowers for Sara’s needs plus some she could put in the medbay for herself. She hurried back to the Tempest to make sure that she wasn’t caught with them.

Sara passed them both on the way out and exchanged glances with each other to confirm that it was going well. She was the only one left now that had something to find, where would she find something that Drack could use.

She was stumped, there wasn’t one restaurant or café open on the Nexus yet so she couldn’t exactly go and ask for some could she.

She had a lightbulb moment, she leant against the railing that overlooked the docking area and pulled up her omni-tool, Vetra would know someone who could help her get her hands on some. She sent her an email and hoped that she’d received it, she had sent it as urgent so that It would get through.

Within five minutes her omni-tool lit up, it was Vetra coming through with a save, she needed to meet someone in the docking bay to pick up her ingredients.

She walked back onto the Tempest with her things to find Gill working on the Nomad, it looked like he had already done one side so she assumed he was nearly done. She dropped off the final piece of the puzzle off in Vetra’s room and thanked her for the saving grace.

Sara began the walk back to her quarters, feeling alleviated of some of her stress. She thought to herself, “when Gill’s done it will have gone off without a hitch, and when he was done then she could begin to feel relieved”.

Later that night as the artificial sun was going over the other end of the Nexus, Suvi returned to the Tempest tired and ready for bed, Dr Aridana had her help her with working things out with the scourge and the effects it had. They had done some good work but ultimately it had taken it out of her.

Most of the crew were already asleep apart from Kallo, Sara and Lexi, Kallo was on the deck ready to take off like Sara had asked him to. When Suvi appeared on the bridge Kallo began getting ready.

Suvi questioned him on where they were going, Sara had said that he could tell her where they were going but to tell her that it was business when actually it was a day off for most of them,

Back in the medbay, the pair were talking about what Sara had planned for tomorrow. She was happy for Sara, she always liked it when her friends and colleagues find someone special, because god knows she had the time for something like that.

They felt the ship lifting off and Sara knew that Suvi was back on board somewhere. Sara thought the most logical place that she would be would be the bridge so she went there first. The doors hissed open and Sara slinked in, she sat herself on the divider and looked to Suvi who looked ready to pass out.

She lightly place her left hand on her shoulder to get her attention and it took a second for her to even register it. She didn’t say anything either so Sara knew she was really gone at this point. She stood up from where she was sat and wrapped one arm around her back and one under her knees and carried her downstairs.

She lied her on the bed where she naturally curled up a little and put her head down, Sara was becoming more and more sure everyday that she wanted to spend her time with Suvi with her. She sat at the end of the bed for a minute so she could be sure that Suvi had fallen to sleep peacefully.

Five minutes of Silence passed before she got up to leave, as she went, she glanced back to Suvi and smiled. She headed back for the medbay so that she could continue talking with Lexi but she found that she had gone to bed now as well leaving her the only one still awake.

She at down on the end of the bed in the medbay and pulled her omni-tool up on her arm, she set herself an alarm for the early hours of the morning so that she could make sure she was ready to get it done.

It was times like this that made Sara really think about herself, she had a few failed relationships before but when she was in school or in college she was always the one who got shot down or ignored. It made her sad to think about it and made her worried to think that it might be about to happen again.

She let out a tired and worn out sigh and took herself back to her bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when it says "college" it is referring to the ones in the UK


	16. beginning of something beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara pushes through the anxiety and gets it out of the way. Suvi is amazed but it was only going to go one way.

Like Sara had planned she was awoken by her omni-tool in the early hours of the morning. She sun had not yet risen over Eos though it would be evening time before she could get the plan moving.

She sat up and pulled herself towards the top of the bed so that she could rest on backboard. She picked her datapad from her bedside table and began to read. 

The time accelerated by and the room gradually got brighter as the sun came over the plains of Eos. When the sun brought her out of the book, she realized while she started to read in the first place. The anxiety, she felt it in her stomach and in her heart.

She was startled by the sound of Suvi waking up next to her, she wasn’t fully waking up but she would be in a few minutes. For Sara, today was all about Suvi, so she made her way to the galley to make her some breakfast.

When she got back it was good timing too, Suvi was awake, she was lying down but she was awake. Sara placed her plate down on the bedside table next to her and got back in on her side.

Suvi knew that something was there, she heard Sara put something on the table but she didn’t know what. She slowly sat herself up and looked to her bedside to see the toast and tea sat on the top. She looked around to Sara before she picked it up.

She was blushing lightly at the way Sara was looking at her, “what’s this about?”. She asked before digging into her breakfast”. She looked to Sara while she ate to hear the explanation.

“well, you were so tired last night that I carried you from the bridge to the bed and made sure you got to sleep. You had a long day so the least I could do was to get you breakfast in bed”.

Suvi was now bright red, she couldn’t remember what she spoke about and that was embarrassing to think about, that she needed to be carried to bed by Sara.

Sara figured out what was happening and let out a little laugh, to Suvi’s further embarrassment. Sara stopped laughing and started to just look at her with adornment. Suvi was confused at this, she was still bright red and still embarrassed.

“why are you looking at me like that?”. She mumbled

“no reason, I just think you look cute when your embarrassed that’s all”.

Suvi melted there and then, she couldn’t think and put down her plate. She furrowed her brow and smirked at Sara, getting her to smile in response.

She picked up her plate and got out of bed, no matter which way she looked at it, she had work to do and it needed to be done. She turned to Sara and frowned when she saw how comfortable she was. “I’m sorry Sara but I have work that needs to be done as soon as possible, I’ll catch up with you later yeah?”.

Sara just smiled and nodded.  She was sad to see her go when she knew what she would be doing later but she couldn’t do anything yet. She watched Suvi walk out of the room and felt the room go silent. She set a reminder for herself every 2 hours so that she could keep track of the time.

The day went past in a flash, Sara had kept her head in her book to make sure it didn’t feel to long. It was getting close to the time where she was planning to take Suvi, for the last hour she had been pacing back and forth across the floor of her quarters. She was waiting for a time that was not long to the sunset but not too late. It would be another hour before the sun went down so guessed another 45 minutes until it was at the horizon.

She stopped pacing, stood at her door and took a deep breath, she was looking forward to it but at the same time she was scared to death of what might happen. There wasn’t many things which scared Sara but love was one of the biggest ones.

She took a step forward and left her room, climbed the ladder to the side and entered the bridge. Suvi was in her chair as normal. She approached her from behind put her hands on either shoulder.

“hey, go and put something comfortable on, were going somewhere”,

Suvi froze for a second, she didn’t know what was going on or why they were going somewhere but once she got it through her head that she trusted Sara she got up from her chair and faced her.

Sara could see the worry in her eyes and came up with something to say to comfort her, “don’t worry, I think you’ll like it”.

Suvi loosened up after hearing her speak, it was simple, and not the kind of the thing that should calm someone down but it worked, just because it was Sara.

“alright, if you say so”, she shuffled around Sara and headed for the crew quarters.

For Sara, this was it, she left the bridge and rushed to the medbay to get the flowers that Lexi found. She didn’t want to waste time so she didn’t hesitate on running around like a mad woman. With the flowers in place, she emailed Drack to tell him where the ingredients from.

she wanted to record all of the big moments for a later so that they could look back at them some day an laugh, so she requested Sam to use all the cameras on he Nomad and record everything. she wanted to be able to go back some day, look back over it and laugh at herself. Everything was done, she was now waiting on Suvi, the adrenaline had kept the nerves from getting to her but she was feeling them now.

Suvi walked out of the bunks to see a flower on the wall opposite her, it was a beautiful colour of pink and was tilted to one side, further down the corridor was another one and further down from that was another one. Where was it leading her, she was nervous and confused. It led from her room to the cargo bay and to Sara stood at the Nomad with the doors down.

She had out on a dress, she normally didn’t like them but she didn’t like the humidity and heat of Eos so she had little choice.

As Sara lay her eyes upon her she was awestruck, she was so beautiful and cute. She extended one of her arms out and laid her hand out in front of her.

Suvi put out one of her hands and grabbed it, she locked them together and took a step towards her, she looked in the eye and smiled before gesturing her to step towards the Nomad.

She swept her off her feet and lightly put her down in the seat. She walked around the other side and got in for herself.

Suvi hadn’t said anything for a minute so she assumed she was either nervous or shocked about it all, she liked it either way. She pressed the button to start it and turned to Suvi, “you ready?”.

Suvi didn’t know how to feel, she was struggling to take it all in. she barely even notice that Sara had said something. She was so confused about it all, even when she had been dating back on earth nobody had gone through so much effort for her and now Sara was, despite all that was happening, she was making such an effort.

When she got her thoughts clear she turned to Sara who was still waiting on her reaction and just nodded.

The Nomad sped backwards out of the Tempest and they took off for the hills. Suvi still hadn’t said anything and Sara was getting a bit worried, she kept her eyes where she was going but spoke loud enough to speak over the Nomad, “Suvi? Are you alright? You haven’t said anything?”.

Suvi kept her eyes out of the window but she knew what had been said, she didn’t know what she should tell her, should she say that she is worried or scared or just surprised. She concluded that it would probably better to go with surprised, so she did. “I’m just surprised that’s all”.

Sara could sense the hint of worry in her voice so she winged it, she had a song that she thought fit the purpose they were out there for so she played it. Quietly from the speakers came a tune that Suvi had not heard.

“There's one more sip in this bottle of wine  
A lonely star hangin' in the sky with a wish left on it  
And it's yours if you want it  
And this wildflower from the neighbor's yard  
A real slow dance in the moonlight dark  
This hand in my pocket  
Oh baby, just call it  
'Cause it's yours if you want it”

As they rose up through the hills it was becoming clear to Suvi one of the reasons she was there, the sun setting over the sand was a sight to behold, the golden sands and rolling hills of Eos was something she had never seen before.

Sara spoke over the music, “this is one of the things I wanted to show you, there are some beauties of the galaxy that you can’t see when you are stuck in the ship all day every day. Sometimes if you want to see some things, then you need to go out and go to them”.

Suvi fazed out as the chorus began to ring.

“And every bit of love left in this beat up, banged up, scarred up heart  
That's been waitin' on a girl like you  
I know it ain't much, but it comes alive with every touch  
Every kiss already feels like you own it  
Baby, it's yours if you want it”.

She was started to slowly but surely put two and two together, new doors on the Nomad that suits the planet, the flowers, the time of day and the romantic music, it was becoming clear but she wouldn’t know until they got to where they were going.

 They pulled up to an outcropping on the top of the cliff with a perfect view of sea of sand before them, Sara was the first to hop out as she came around to the other side to help Suvi out of the Nomad. She pulled a blanket out from behind her chair and walked out towards the edge.

She laid the blanket down in the sand and sat down, she put her hand out to signal Suvi to come and sit with her. She came over and sat down next to Sara, lying her head on her shoulder as they sat together in the bliss that was the sunset.

Sara was building her courage, she had been turned down and shot down so many times now, she wasn’t sure how she would cope if this went wrong. She couldn’t know, she had to go by her own words, “you don’t know unless you try” she said to herself in her head.

She took a deep breath and lifted Suvi’s head off her shoulder so they could lock eyes, “Suvi there is a reason I brought you out here. Over the last week or so we have become a lot closer than we had been before. The more time I spend with you the more and more sure I am of wanting to be with you. I did all this because I wanted something nice and out the way, well that and to show you that I tried –

I think your such an amazing person, your love of science, your love of all things unknown and most importantly you have shown me that you care about me, more than anyone ever has before. When I’m with you I can be myself, I can talk about my issues and just let it all go-

So what I guess I’m trying to say is…Suvi, will you please go out with me?”.

Suvi melted there and then, nobody had ever said anything like that to her ever, she was always the one who was saying it. Her face lit up like a tomato as she looked at Sara. A smile grew uncontrollably on her face and her eyes began to water. One line managed to escape her, “oh Sara that’s beautiful, of course I will”.

She grabbed her new girlfriend and pulled her towards her. Before she could even reply she connected their lips and waiting for a moment. All of her worries were gone, all of that worrying for something like that, it was something new.

She laid her head back onto Sara’s shoulder and wrapped her arm around her, Sara wrapped her left arm around Suvi under the arm she was using.

the couple sat in absolute bliss for half an hour, watching the sunset over the golden plains and the temperature starting to go down too. The bliss was interrupted by Sara rubbing Suvi’s head to get her attention, “we need to get back to the Tempest, there’s one more thing I have for you”.

She picked herself up from the blanket and reached down to pick Suvi up as well, she pulled her up and spun her around before she picked up the blanket and dusted it off. She threw the blanket in and then lifted her new girlfriend into her seat.

She walked around to her side and got in. the ride back a different atmosphere to it, instead of it being awkward or silent it was energetic and filled with conversation.

Back on the Tempest, Drack was finishing up the meal and leaving it in Sara’s room. When the pair got back they went straight back to Sara’s quarters, led by her. Upon entering they could smell the goodness that was Drack’s cooking.

Sara jumped right for the bed whereas Suvi went for taking her shoes off first. They dived into the full meal that they had. Now suffering from a food coma, the couple just plates back on the table and snuggled up to each other in bed, Suvi rested her head on Sara’s chest and Sara had one arm beneath Suvi. Together they fell asleep in peace and in a new state of mind, in the beginning of something beautiful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song used: yours if you want it by rascal flatts


	17. back into the action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> her week off has come to and end, she has another planet to take care of and injuries don't take long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've swapped up my style in this one, I noticed that while reading back through that what should have happened over a number of months only felt like it had happened over one. 
> 
> from now on I will be using "---" to signify a change in the scene or to signify an unspecified space of time to add the feeling of it happening more to the right pace.

Her omni-tool buzzed and there was a knock at her door, she rolled over to Suvi and wrapped her arms around her after letting out a distasteful groan. Again came the knock at her door and again she let out a groan. “Sam, who is at the door?”.

“Lexi” came the synthetic voice over the speakers.

“open the door for her Sam”, she said under her breath.

“yes pathfinder”.

The doors hissed open to reveal the doctor standing in the doorway with a cup of coffee and cup of tea. She waltzed in and put the cups on the relevant tables. Sara slowly pulled her right arm from underneath Suvi and used it to prop herself up on the bed.

 She looked to Lexi waiting for her to speak. It took the doctor to figure out what she was waiting for but she did she kept her voice quiet but loud enough to be heard from the couch, “we don’t have much time before we touch down on Havarl so you’d better get up and ready, the crew is waiting for the brief. Your week off is over new, back to work”.

Sara took a deep breath as she reached for her coffee on the table next to her. She took a sip before attempting to make a sentence, she sighed before she spoke, “I know Lexi, thanks for the coffee by the way. Il finish this and get up, might leave Suvi asleep though, she was up late last night working”.

She glanced at the sleeping red head before looking back at Lexi, waiting for her response. She was the only one that knew of them being together and so was more willing to let the little things slip by. Her voice was soft with understanding, “that’s alright, but we need you to get back to being the pathfinder”.

Sara chuckled, she was a completely different person when she was off duty, she was still the hard as steel, always alright Sara but she was more carefree and let things go past her instead of worrying about everything.

“your right”, she said dropping her head back onto her pillow. She noticed herself turning her head to Suvi to her right but she didn’t stop herself. She looked so peaceful when she slept, while she was awake she was always flustered by something, whether it be by her work, a weird comment made by another member of the crew or one of Sara’s compliments. But when she slept, she was at peace.

She pulled herself back up and swung her legs out from under the quilt, it was cold, but not freezing.

In her head, she asked Sam to tell Suvi where she was when she woke up and ask Drack to make her a cup of tea. She could start her day, she didn’t want to but she could.

The ground team were already waiting on the bridge in their armour as they fell into the atmosphere, she rumbling stabilized as she approached them stood near her console.

After a long discussion they agreed on what they were to do, take Jaal and PeeBee and then try and figure out what the situation was with their vault.

\---

Some time had elapsed before Suvi woke up, she had been working late last night on some things that Dr Aridana had dropped on her at the last minute. She woke up nice and warm in her bed, but she wasn’t happy at the feeling of being alone in it, she had enjoyed having a week to have Sara to herself, after what Sara had done for her and confessed to her. She just wanted some time with her, but that was over now and work was to resume.

She was about to get dressed when she was interrupted by the monotone voice in the roof, “good morning Suvi, the time is currently 12:00 pm, Sara has left a message for you and Drack will be waiting with some fresh tea”.

She always loved the lovely messages Sara would leave for her when she went out, they were all so sweet and said something lovely. She looked to the roof even though Sam was based in the corner. “can you play the message for me Sam?”. She asked.

A second of silence went past before Sara’s voice came through, “morning babe, hope you slept well, I knew you were up late so I left you alone, I’m out right now but I’ll be back later. Enjoy your day, I love you”.

Suvi melted where she Sat, Sara always had a way of making her happy, she didn’t need all of the gifts and physical offers, all she needed was to be loved and appreciated. Sara never went a day without appreciating her.

She left the room with a spring in her step and smile on her face, like Sara had said, Drack was there and had made her a cup of Tea. Drack was more than happy to do this for her from time to time, especially as the request often came from the pathfinder.

\---

Sara and the team had met with the Angaran science team and went to work giving their help, the science team were studying the remnant tech when they were put into a stasis field. Suvi thought this would be an easy fix due to Sam’s understanding of the technology.

Upon arrival to the facility they found the team around a terminal in the blue stasis fields. “it’s an easy fix” she thought, the console in the middle seamed like the best way to go about it so she slowly approached it and put her hand down on top.

The columns fell and rose in the ripple pattern as always, releasing the scientists from their stasis, to their horror to see another alien in front of them. They weren’t violent, just confused so they were sent back to the base on Jaal’s command.

While on the way back to the base, the team was ambushed by a pack of wild Adhi, they didn’t see them coming and Sara took a claw to the leg as she was charged. Her leg slowly went numb, starting with her foot, then the shin and the calf and then her thigh. She had to put all of her weight onto her right leg and rest against a rock nearby.

With the Adhi out of the way she had a chance to examine the injury, it was a shallow laceration but a laceration none the less, if she didn’t get it seen to some time soon it could cause her trouble. With the help of Jaal she hobbled back to the Tempest and into the medbay, much to Lexi’s horror when she got there.

She knew it wasn’t serious but she wasn’t one for taking the risks like that. The stinging began as Lexi applied the medi gel. It cleaned it and disinfected it which is what Sara was worried about.

Lexi glanced at her as she started to apply the bandage, “could be worse”, she sighed, “if this is the worst it gets then my job might not be so hard.

Sara chuckled, she liked her humour, it was so professional but it still worked somehow. She was looking at the ceiling but she was still listening, “I know it’s a bit daft but I didn’t want to risk it”.

Lexi smiled in response, “I’m glad you did, shows your actually taking care of yourself, makes it easy on me if you watch out so I’m not going to complain”. “stay off it for the rest of the day but you should be able to get back out tomorrow alright?”.

Sara sat up on the bed nodded to her in agreement, Lexi helped her up and she hobbled her way back to the bedroom.

\---

Suvi hurried through the bedroom doors worrying, she didn’t like it when Sara had a small cut on her finger, never mind a hole in her leg. Sara was on the bed reading something from her datapad when she was startled by Suvi’s approach, she laid down her datapad as she looked up to her girlfriend.

Suvi joined her on the bed to look over the damage, she was still on her shift but she needed to come and see it for herself. She was happy that it was smaller than she though it was, Sara noticed the relief and grew a smile.

Suvi could see it from the corner of her eye but she didn’t move her head, “I can only stay for a minute, I just came to check on you that’s all”.

Sara sat up and put her hand on top of Suvi’s, “thank you”.

Suvi leant forward and dropped a kiss on her forehead, “your welcome”, she got up from the bed and left the room, leaving Sara back by herself.

She hated being out of the field, she couldn’t do anything from inside, it didn’t help that it was the first day back and she was already injured, she was going to have to do better than this in the future. ---

That night Sara had fallen asleep early than usual, she got tired easily when she was lying around doing nothing.

Suvi walked through the doors late that night as she often did, but usually Sara was still up waiting for her, but not this time. It was nice and quiet in the room, Sam never made any noise and other than the room with the drive core, it was the best soundproofed as well.

She got into her Pj’s and flopped on the bed, she was still getting used to calling it her bed. It was already warm, while Sara was only on one side, she always managed to get the whole thing to warm up. Either that or it was something that Suvi was feeling which isn’t actually happening.

\---

Back in the field the next day, Sara felt a lot better about it, the aching had subsided and she was put on some small pieces of armour to add protection to it. It was time to get on with her next issue.  The vault wasn’t the problem but the fact that one of the monoliths were deactivated was.

After talking with the right people, she was sent on a run around of various errands and back and forth to the same place twice, talking with the kind of people that she didn’t like to associate with, and tangling with the damned Roekaar around every corner. It was not being as easy as easy as she had hoped it would be.

\---

The team trudged back onto the ship to the relaxed atmosphere of nobody really doing much of anything, PeeBee and Jaal split off to the armoury to get their armour off while Sara headed for here personal one on the bridge. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a particular red head on the balcony above her, when she glanced back again she was gone.

She was glad to be out of her armour, Havarl was not as hot as Eos but it was extremely humid and so after a day in her armour she needed to shower and stop herself like smelling like she didn’t know what one was.

A shower at the end of a day like that was a necessity for her to have if she wanted to relax whatsoever, it soothed her muscles and helped the adrenaline to go down. She hated the effects of adrenaline, it wouldn’t allow her to calm down and her mind would always be on edge. She wanted to cool off at the end of the day, not be eternally energetic.

The streams of hot water felt like heaven as they fell onto her hair and her back. She began to spasm lightly as the muscles started to break from the tension. The week off the clock had caused her body to phase out and lose the feeling of hard work, so now it was worse than it normally would be.

She turned the shower off and reached around the wall for her towel. As the room was small, it was still warm while after she turned it off. Luckily for her, her room was right outside so she could go in covered by the towel and get dressed in there.

The doors parted to her quarters and she waltzed in, she was momentarily about to drop the towel before being shocked solid at the sight of Suvi on the bed. Sara was a lot of things but confident in how her body looks isn’t one of then, she was proud of the work that she put in to get her body but she was always petrified by the thought of someone seeing her naked. She just wasn’t ready for that yet.

Suvi even left the datapad she was reading to laugh at the expression that she was wearing, at this point Suvi knew what it was about so she turned away from the direction of her wardrobe while still laughing at her.

Sara furrowed her brow and took the few short steps to her clothes and swapped quickly, she didn’t dress for the looks nowadays, she had spent too many days without the ability to take care in what she wore that it stuck to her. She was going to be getting in bed now anyway so it didn’t really matter.

She threw herself onto her side of the bed and turned her gaze to Suvi, she knew it was wrong to stare but she didn’t care now, she was more than happy to stare at her woman. She sat herself up to give her a goodnight kiss and lied down once again.


	18. healing Havarl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the team finish up on Havarl and Sara gets some news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short chapter just to keep things rolling. the next chapter is not going to be story related because i want to be at around chapter 20 before i go into saving the moshea.

Sara walked through the doors of the galley to see Drack stood at the counter and Suvi sat at the table, “so that’s you were went”. She said, she felt Suvi get out of bed a while ago but didn’t know where she went or why.

Suvi jumped in her seat, she wasn’t scared of Sara’s response its just that they normally got up at the same time. She turned to Sara in the doorway while she drank her tea. “I didn’t know you were awake and you looked comfortable so I left you there to sleep”, she explained apologetically.

Sara grew a smile on her face, she wasn’t trying to get her to feel bad about it, she was only joking, “don’t worry about it, I’m not upset”, she murmured as she sat down on the bench next to her. “I don’t have much time because I need to get going back out again but I can hang around for a few minutes”.

Drack was looking away from them so Suvi rested her head on Sara’s shoulders. They still hadn’t really told anyone what was going on, as she informed people what was happening on Eos, some of them were suspicious but nobody knew.

The call came through on her omni-tool, it was Cora, “you need to start getting ready now, PeeBee and Jaal won’t take long”. She shook her wrist and closed it. “last day”, she thought to herself.

\---

The atmosphere of Havarl was as humid as it was yesterday, it might have been even more so the length of time she was stood talking with people.

One of the people she met yesterday gave her a nav point to meet him, through some kind of reincarnation that happened with the Angara, the contact was a reincarnation of the person who knew the location of the lost monolith. So now, they can use him to find it and the find the vault.

Havarl was a strange planet, it looked like it had heavy remnant terraforming done to it, there was a large canyon down the middle and the walls were obviously designed by the remnant. What it was used for was unknown, but the important thing is that at one end there was a gravity well and at the other end was a cave, the cave were her nav point went to.

Upon arrival the contact was already there waiting for them, when they got close he got to opening the cave. There was a remnant type device on the floor in front of him, he bent down and placed some kind of relic on it. The ground rumbled and shook but missive pillars in front of them slid out of the way to reveal the large, open cavern inside.

There was only two exits from the main cavern, the one they came from and the one on the other side. The Angara slowly made his way over, regaining the memories of his previous incarnation as he went. Besides the door was another of the remnant plugs, the placed the relic on top and again the pillars slid out of the way.

On the ground in the centre was what looked like a grave with a body in it and some clothes, a scan revealed that it was in fact the contacts previous body. He knelt down and put his hand on the clothes, a light flashed before his eyes and with it the memories of the last monolith.

It was back the way they came and to the right, he didn’t need to use the relic this time, the pillars moved out of the way as he got close. Before them was the last monolith and the key to healing Havarl’s toxic plant life mutated wildlife.

Sara knew what she was doing now, like the 6 times before, she placed her hands on the top of the console and had Sam do his thing. The buttons rippled under her and the light started to come on. The green liquid that ran through the hidden wires cam to life, carrying it to the top of the monolith.

Using something they didn’t entirely understand, they helped to save yet another planet, and helped the Angara even more.

\---

The returned to the research base as hero’s, Havarl was believed to be the planet where the Angara were born, and now it was no longer dying.

A short walk back to the Tempest and a shower later, it was time to go, they needed to make a supply Run to the Nexus to restock and they needed to come up with the next stage of their plan.

\---

Sara was stood on the bridge, they were still on Havarl but they would be leaving shortly. A ping came from the console behind Suvi’s seat, it was her email terminal for use on the bridge. She wandered over to it to see who it was that had sent her something. She wasn’t expecting anything but her heart dropped when the sending read “Dr Harry Carlisle”.

She read through the email frantically searching for whatever could be the problem, but it wasn’t a problem. Sam had been able to open comms with him through his implant, she could talk to him. But what would she say, could she bear to tell him about their dad or the failure of habitat 7? She would have to think about it.

She was ecstatic at this news, she was jumping where she stood unable to say anything, earning her a weird look from Kallo and Suvi. She couldn’t get her words out and thinking straight seemed impossible too.

She regained her voice and began laying it on them, “I can talk with him!”.

Suvi looked back at her in confusion, “talk with who?”.

She didn’t hesitate with her answer, “Scott…”. She was coming down now from her euphoria now and feeling the knots in her stomach.

Suvi got out of chair and walked over to her, she wrapped her arms around her, she knew she would be feeling something right now, whether it be shock, happiness or sadness. Sara dropped her head onto Suvi’s shoulder and her eyes began to tear.

Kallo didn’t quite know what was going on here, he understood what was said but he didn’t know why those two of all people would be in a hug right now, there was something going on that he didn’t know about.


	19. what now?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the secret is finally out and Sara is embarrassed.

The crew of the Tempest had plenty of time to get to know each other on their travels, whether it be during travel or when the ground team was out but there was a surprising Lack of contact between them all.

Sara thought she could find a way around this, she knew Vetra always kept a bottle of something in her room, Sara was going to use it get some things out of the crew. Sara didn’t have as much time to talk with all the crew as everyone else did. If she wasn’t out in the field, she was sleeping, typing emails, having meetings over the vid com, coming up with the next plan of action or just spending time with herself of her girlfriend. Being a pathfinder was a busy job.

There was still a lot she didn’t know about her crewmates and she knew how to get it out.

The first thing was to see what Vetra had hidden away in her room, she wasn’t going to try and sneak around, instead she was just going to go and ask.

The doors to her room slid open to reveal her counting inventory of some of the weapons. “*cough*”, Vetra turned around quicker than Sara had seen anyone do before.

“Dam it Sara!”, she scolded, “what do you need?”.

“I know you always have some kind of drink hidden away in here, what’d you say we use it for some games?”.

Vetra put her hand to her chin in thought, she did like to keep the drink for herself, but if there was one thing she liked more than a drink, it was getting information from people. She moved a stack of boxes from the corner of the room and pulled out a rather large bottle of whiskey.

She was relieved, while it was rare that she drank anything at all, whiskey was something she could get behind. She stepped over and took the bottle from her hand while transferring over some credits as a thanks.

She took the bottle back to her room to hide it until it was needed, now she needed to get as many people as she could into the cargo bay later so that it could be as much fun as possible. She knew she wouldn’t last long but she hoped she’d get something good while she was there.

She began with a public email asking who would be up for a drinking game later. Moments later her terminal exploded with responses. Everyone but Lexi was in, the others would call her a spoil sport but Sara knew that if she ended up drunk then nobody else stood a chance, so she was thankful for that.

“tonight at 9 it begins”, is the next one she sent.

\---

Sara had shifted some creates around from the outside to create a table and some seats for the crew to sit on. It was nearly time to begin and there already some people there. PeeBee was always up for a drink she was there, Liam liked a drink so he was there and while Lexi wouldn’t be drinking she was there getting prepped for the mess that was the crew drinking.

Slowly everyone else filtered out of their rooms and took a seat, PeeBee was sat next to Vetra so she knew that would get along like a house on fire, and Suvi sat herself down next to Sara. Suvi didn’t drink much but if Sara was wiling to have a few then maybe she might too.

The table was full and the glasses were poured, PeeBee jumped in to start it off, she span an empty bottle on the table, as it stopped it was pointing right at Jaal, normally she would have gone in with something dirty of personal but as Jaal was not one of them in that way yet she started off light.

“Jaal, what is your honest opinion of the crew?”, Jaal tilted his head in thought or a second before clearing his throat. What happened next was nothing short of unexpected. It was something nice and then a shot at someone and then something nice and then another shot.

This was not something any of them had seen coming, but of course nobody was really offended because it was all true in the end.

As Jaal had just answered he got to spin the bottle this time, it pointed at Liam. “Liam, what is your opinion of me?”. Liam didn’t answer, he picked up his shot and took a shot. While his head was up he could hear Jaal say, “oh I see how it is”.

With his glass back on the table he just shrugged his shoulders and left it at that.

Because Liam refused to answer then the bottle was spun to see who would be the next to spin it. It pointed at Sara so she got the spin. The top pointed to Cora, as Cora was her second in command, Sara tried to get something interesting out of her, “so, Cora. Tell us something about your love life”.

Cora’s eyes went wide, she wasn’t one for romance but at the same time she didn’t really care what the others thought so she just came clean, much to everyone else’s disappointment and her favour.

She span the bottle and in a weird turn of events it pointed back at Sara, it was time for the tables to turn, “now you tell us something about your love life!”. “oh shit!”. She said in her head, her love life was a disaster and now she was dating Suvi, what does she say to them.

Panicking she grabbed Suvi and pulled her close enough to whisper in her ear, “do you think it’s time to tell them?”, she didn’t want to tell them yet but she also didn’t want to be that one person who doesn’t say anything.

Suvi moved her head to Sara’s ear, she sighed before she said, “I don’t think we have a choice now do we really? Take a drink now and tell them to try again later, lets see how many people don’t remember tomorrow”.

Sara giggled, it wasn’t like Suvi to pull something like that but like always, her idea was genius. She grabbed her glass and took her shot, “Try again later and you might get something out of me”.

The rest of the crew furrowed their brows in determination, there was something she was hiding and they were going to get it.

\---

I had been going on for a while now and most people were now actually drunk, Drack was asleep and so was Jaal, leaving the others to go between themselves.

A bottle spin and a cheer later it had landed on Suvi, PeeBee was the one to ask a question, she got really sexual when she got drunk so the question was inevitable in the end, “what’s a girl gotta do to get you to remove some of that clothing?”.

Suvi’s face when a bright shade of pink and she couldn’t think straight, “oh! I, um…”. She was tipsy but not all gone, her heart wasn’t going let itself be outed that easily. She reached out to the glass and threw it back in a hurry.

The rest of the crew exchanged glares at each other, even in their drunkenness it was clear to see to see that something was going on.

Question after question they all got that little bit more drunk. 

\---

The night was ending, some people were struggling to speak and now Gill had gone as well. Cora spins the bottle, only for it to land on Sara yet again, “now it’s time for your love life”, she slurred.

Sara sighed, this is it, she would have like to keep it a secret for a little longer but in the end her idea works both ways. She cleared her throat and began to speak, “my love life is a mess, I’ve been in less than a handful of relationships, none of them worked out and now I’m dating Suvi…”.

Silence befell on the rest of the crew as they took in what had just been said. A devilish grin was growing on PeeBee’s face, “what now?”, Sara caught it out of the corner of her eye, and Cora gained her devilish grin she had when she was going to do something mischievous. The noise picked back up as the crew resumed rambling among themselves. “Oh god…what have I done”. Her smile collapsed on itself to leave her with a blank expression.

She turned to Suvi looking for a bit of support, she was smiling kindly as she turned back to see the look of helplessness in her eyes. She tilted her head and moved her crate over to Sara’s, she could feel her disconnection from the situation and it pained her to see her like this so she wanted to cheer her up.

She dropped her head onto her shoulder and looked at her eyes to see If there was any change, they flickered slightly so she knew she was doing something right. Sara let out a long sigh before resting her head on top of Suvi’s.

It wasn’t mentioned again the rest of the night but it wasn’t difficult for her to sense that the atmosphere wasn’t the same as it was beforehand.

Sara looked to Suvi before she got up to leave, Suvi was sleeping on her shoulder. She deliberated for a second on what she could do here, she didn’t want to wake her but at the same time she really wanted to get out, she determined that she had already embarrassed herself badly enough earlier that picking her up wouldn’t be the worse idea.

She lifted her head and slung her right arm underneath it, then slide her left arm under Suvi’s legs. Suvi was rather light and because of Sara’s strength she was able to pull off a one person carry, it was her favourite way of carrying people because she could keep and eye on their face, now more than ever.

As she made her to way to the door, the entire surviving crew stopped everything and proceeded to stare at her on the way out, she didn’t want to be embarrassed even more so she went for the positional advantage, “no staring, and don’t disturb us until we get to the Nexus, am I crystal clear?”.

All she got back was some nods and some slurs so she continued on her way.

Suvi was always so cute to Sara when she slept, she was relaxed and not being flustered over anything. Suvi would look so much more human if she let things go every once in a while.

She was happy to be in the silence of her room, her room is where it was safe for her to be herself, and for her to admire her woman. She lowered her onto her side of the bed softly and got on her side, she dint bother getting changed, she couldn’t bother right now.

Finally comfortable, in her own bed with her girl she could finally allow herself to drift away and hopefully forget what she had done.


	20. what do i say, i'm sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara visits Scott in the medbay and is caught in a dilemma

The cargo slid open to reveal a nervous and worn out Sara, after last night and the headache only just fading she needed to get out for a while. But this wasn’t any outing, Harry asked her to come by because Sam could allow her to talk to her brother while he was in a coma.

She stepped off the ramp and began on her way, she was having conflicting thoughts and feelings right about now. A mix of drink lingering embarrassment and uncertainty made it so she couldn’t thing straight.

The atmosphere was much clearly than the one of the Tempest. It was cleaner and thinner meaning that it was more relaxing to be in, though that was quickly offset by the fact that it so incredibly loud that it was deafening.

It was crowded, too crowded for her, she disliked how little room there was to manoeuvre from one place to another one. It made everything so slow, today she didn’t want It to be slow, she wanted it to be as quick as possible.

For the number of people around in the docking area, the tram was always somehow empty and silent, leaving Sara with only her thoughts. “what do I tell him”, she whispered to herself. “do I tell him about dad or about habitat 7 or do I lie to make sure that he’s ok”. She released a heavy breath she didn’t think she’d be this worried about talking with her brother. Only if the situation was the same as it once was.

The tram came to a slow and the door rolled out of the way, the door to the cryo bay was clear as day, no matter how nervous she was, it would be pointless to turn away now. The habitation deck was quiet compared to the other parts of the Nexus and her daily life.

She approached the doors so that they could open but didn’t walk in, she could see Dr Carlyle stood next to a bed in which she assumed Scott was in. plodding towards the Dr, her brother came into view as a tear grew in her eye. It had been 600 years since she had seen her brother and him being in a coma wasn’t the way she thought about it going.

Harry was startled by Sara’s approach, she had been quiet and slow so he wasn’t ready.

She looked at the doctor with a mix of energy and apprehensiveness, “hey doc, I’m ready to talk with him…”.

As Sam picked up on those key words, he began to do his work, “using Scott’s implant, it would allow you to talk with him a long as he is stable”. A second later her came through again, “you should be able to communicate now”.

Sara glimpsed at her brother on the bed and started to listen for his voice, “Sara? Is that you?”.

“Scott, it’s me, Sara, are you ok”. She sat down on the bed next to one of his legs.

Scott was confused at first as to how they were talking and where he was but it didn’t take long for the conversation to go where Sara really wished that it didn’t.

“where is dad, how did habitat 7 go?”. He sounded so full of hope and energy, but he hadn’t been dulled by the constant stress and fighting of Andromeda. Sara remembered when that’s how she thought like that, back when they had first got there.

“Scott…Scott dads dead, he gave his life to save me”, she sighed and dropped her shoulders, “habitat 7 was a bust, were still trying to find a home yet”.

“Sara I…”. she stopped, his vitals started to grow restless.

Harry had to interject and disconnect them from each other, “Sara you need wrap it up quickly”.

She sat still and looked at her brother in his fragile state. At this point she could only manage a broken whisper, “what do I say, I’m sorry Scott”. A tear left her eye, she had tried to hold them back as to not worry Scott but she couldn’t help it from herself.

She pulled herself from the bed and trudged her way to the other side of the bed to where Harry was stood looking over some of the readings. “thanks harry, look after him for me”.

She didn’t wait for him to return anything before she turned and began her slow return to the Tempest. It was times like this when she was unable to think, she was unable to think of anything being other than her fault. Times like these brought her whole person into question and it tore her apart from the inside out.

With her head to her feet and her hands in her pocket she headed for the tram. She was nearing the first set of doors that led down the line, because she had her head down to floor she was oblivious to the person who was stood right beside her.

It was Suvi who was there waiting for her to return from her visit, just from Sara’s body language and look she knew something was seriously wrong, she didn’t need to think before she acted. She placed on of her hands on Sara’s shoulder and stopped her in her tracks. She looked her in the eye with as much understanding as she could and smiled, she wasn’t trying to make Sara feel better but only let her know that she was here. Sara put her head back down to the floor in an attempt to stop people seeing her crying, she hated looking weak in front of others.

The walk back to the Tempest was not like it was when she was coming the other way. While it was just as busy, she was so disconnected from herself that it didn’t sound like the corridors were full and the dock was bustling like it always was but Sara wasn't paying attention, she just wanted to be back in her bed on the Tempest.

\---

Sara felt safe in her room, in there she could cry all she wanted and get everything else out without the team seeing her in a mess on her floor. But of course one person did, Suvi, she always refused to leave Sara's side when she was upset. Sara always said that she didn’t want her to see her like this but she was secretly thankful for what Suvi did for her. Having someone to lean on was sometimes all she needed to feel better.

She had collapsed into her bed and buried her head into her hands as the tears began to stream from her eyes. Suvi pulled her into an embrace to try and calm her but Sara was a hard person to get through to. The tears lasted for at least half an hour before they began to slow.

Not a word had been said the whole time, Suvi knew she needed to let it run its course before she could even try and get her to think straight so she did what she did best, sat and listened.

“Its my fault Suvi, it’s all my fault”, her voice was broken and whiny as she struggled to get her words out.

Suvi didn’t know what happened with Scott so she needed to find out before she could start to help her, “what, what’s your fault?”, so spoke slowly and calmly as to attempt to keep her calm.

Sara didn’t say anything for a brief moment, she didn’t know what she should say, “when I told him about dad and about habitat 7 he got unsteady and had to be cut off, he hasn’t even woken up yet and he already has to deal with this, something could have happened to him its my fault that he couldn’t deal with it I-”.

Suvi cut her off from her ramble, “shh, it’s not your fault, it would be hard for someone when they’re awake never mind in a coma. Plus I think when he wakes up he is going to appreciate that you told him the truth so that he doesn’t wake up to it. I don’t think it’s your fault Sara, I think you did the right thing”. It broke Suvi on the inside to see Sara like this, especially after all of the things she had seen about her which the others simply hadn’t.

Sara impulsively hid her troubles behind a mask so that everyone could stay happy even though it really hurt herself in the process.

She got up off the bed and turned to Suvi, she lifted her from the bed as well and pulled her closer for a minute of appreciation, her teary eyes and restless mind rested on Suvi’s shoulder. Suvi could feel through her uniform the instability of her girlfriend. A minute turned into 5 and 5 into 10, Sara didn’t want to leave because she just wanted to be held and Suvi didn’t want to leave because she just wanted to help. She was always going to want to help.


	21. the plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Evfra come up with a plan. Sara hopes for a lie in tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this should really have been out on Saturday but i got distracted and then procrastinated so my bad, sorry if any of you were actually waiting for it.

The sun filtered through the windows of Sara’s quarters in the early hours of the morning, she was already awake though she didn’t feel like doing anything. A full night’s sleep isn’t something she would call it; the scene of her brother was replaying in her nightmares. She awoke in a cold sweat being unable to make a sound. Suvi was sleeping next to her so she didn’t want to wake her up for something like this. No matter what she tried she couldn’t get back to sleep again, no matter what she always ended up back where she started.

It seemed like sleep was no longer an option so emails it would be, she clambered from her bed and fumbled her way over to her terminal in the corner. There she got lost in words on her screen, she was only pulled out when she picked up and vague moans of Suvi waking up back in the bed. She stopped typing where she was and joined her back in the bed so that she could enjoy her company.

Suvi was warm and calming, when she got into bed she felt all of her worries back away from her. She moaned lightly as she slowly gained her consciousness, it was early but not too early. She rolled over to see Sara staring at her with a smile on her face.

“what are you doing up so early? And what’s that face for?”. She smiled back to her and watched for a reply. The smile dropped from Sara’s face as she began to explain her early morning.

She sighed before she answered, “a nightmare woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep so I got some work done and then hopped back into bed”. Suvi stared blankly for a second before she answered her back.

There was a hint of confusion in her voice, she wouldn’t have minded being woken up if it was for that reason, “you should have woken me up, I would have talked about it!”.

“you know I don’t like waking you up, your always so peaceful and I don’t want to disturb you”, she was embarrassed by the comment but it was true, she didn’t like to wake her for something that she didn’t thing mattered.

“oh Sara, I want you to wake me up the next time something like this happens alright? I want to help you”. Sara wrapped her arms around her and snuggled up to her as she formulated her response, “alright Suvi, I will”.

\---

As their time for that morning came a to a close there came a knock at her door, she waved her hand to the side and the parts of the door hissed away from each other. Cora marched through and approached the bed, “Evfra is waiting on the vid-con for you, he has something urgent for you”. It sounded urgent in her voice”.

Sara knew that she needed to get the trust of the resistance so she also knew that she needed to listen to what they had to say. She turned to Suvi and planted a kiss on her forehead and turned back to Cora, “I’ll be there in a minute”. She climbed out of bed and made her way to her wardrobe.

“could I have some privacy please lieutenant?”. Without a word Cora turned and left the room leaving her and Suvi by herself. As always Suvi turned away from the pathfinder while she got changed.

When she was done she sauntered over to the redhead in the bed and whispered in her ear, “Your shift starts soon, you might want to get up. Or not, I don’t mind”. She flashed a smile before turning away and moving towards the door.

\---

Sara approached the console and gestured over the panel in front of her. The leader of the resistance appeared in the center of the table, “Pathfinder”, Sara greeted him back in the right way, “commander”.

Evfra began to lay out his meeting, “we know that the Moshea is currently in a Kett facility on Veold but we have a problem, the only entrance we know of is guarded by a shield. We don’t have the technology to break through the shield and we don’t have the time to try and improve it. I hate asking for help but we need it”.

Sara didn’t hesitate in formulating a plan, “we’ll make our way to Aya so that we can figure this out between us.”

“I hope so, the Moshea means a lot to us”. Before Sara could respond to him the call cut out.

Sara stared at the center of the table blankly for a second before asking herself a question, “did I, did I just get hung up on?”.

\---

The Tempest touched down on the landing pad outside of Aya and the team departed, since the last time they were here the whole crew had been given permission to look around but keep their distance.

Sara approached the doors to the resistance base, she was here on better terms this time compared to when she came in on fire. The Angara still gave her stares of disapproval as she walked down to the meeting room. She didn’t exactly like Evfra but she didn’t have much of an option if she wanted to get anywhere.

The meeting seemed to go on for hours, the rambling just kept on coming as they went over everything from the teams to the tactics, as much as she hated it she knew it was something that would come in useful.

By the time she managed to wrap up and get out of the meeting it was already sun down and the only people around where the resistance guards which roamed the streets. She had never seen Aya so quiet, the peace and the tranquility is something she could only dream of having on the Nexus, or the Tempest for that matter. Aya was always so lively and busy that it was unusual to see it like this, she only wished that she could have it more often.

as she neared the Tempest sat out on the dock she was having a thought, “If I can get the plan to everyone now before everyone goes to bed then even I might get a lie in tomorrow”, she brought her arm up to her face and began to speak, “crew meeting for everyone that it still awake, don’t wake the others if they are already asleep”.

The cargo bay slid open to unveil a sleepy looking Suvi stood waiting in the doorway, her words were soft spoken and her voice was smooth, “what took you so long?”, she grabbed Sara by the hand as they made their way up to the conference room. The Tempest was calmer now than it was when she had left, and she was thankful, loud noises isn’t something she needed right now.

Cora, Kallo and Jaal were stood around the table with looks of displeasure on their faces. Cora was as pale as a ghost and Jaal looked like he had just gotten up from a year of sleep. Sara walked up to the table with Suvi in tow and lied out what she had to say.

“guys, the only reason I’m telling you this now is because I won’t have to tell you tomorrow and we can all get a lie in, apart from Kallo, we need to go to Veold, sorry about that Kallo”, the look on his face didn’t seem to change and Sara didn’t feel like pursuing it further would be a good idea. “tomorrow we go and rescue the Moshea from the Kett facility on Veold, it is going to take most of the day and will take more effort than anything so far, we need to be able to get this done. That’s all guys, don’t wake me up in the morning. Dismissed”.

The trio slinked away from the table without a word from any of them leaving just Sara and Suvi still standing. Sara was ready for bed, she turned to start making her way back to their room and Suvi wasn’t going to object.

Now back in her room, she didn’t even bother changing, she fell onto the bed as her sight went hazy and she could Feel Suvi’s warmth beside her, she slowly drifted off into some much needed sleep.


	22. through hell and back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and the team rescues the Moshea but she suffers the harsh effects of such an event.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is kind a a chapter that kind of just...keeps going.

Jaal was up early that morning, the feeling of uncertainty brewing from within him. It was the day the Moshea would finally be back where she should be. He was tempted to go and wake up Sara but he respected that after meeting with Evfra all day she wanted t a lie in.

He needed something to do if he didn’t want the nerves to get the better of himself, he needed something to keep him busy. Tinkering with his rifle was always something that worked when he needed something to do so he grabbed it from the table and got to it.

PeeBee was in her hammock half awake when she was rudely startled by Cora marching into her room, she always seemed to have some kind of force in her step and didn’t seem like she couldn’t walk without putting all of her weight into it. “PeeBee, you awake”.

PeeBee groaned in response, “kind of why?”, she lifted her head so that she could see the commando standing in the doorway.

“Sara wants you on the team that’s going to infiltrate the facility today, you don’t have to get ready yet and but when she gets up then you need to shift it”. She didn’t want to wait around for her to argue so she turned on her heals and left back to the chem lab.

\---

Sara was awoken by the gentle vibration of her omni-tool, the long night sleep and the undisturbed lie in meant she had gotten more sleep than she usually would but that didn’t stop the sleep inertia from keeping her on the threshold of consciousness. The bed felt cold, she swung her right arm out to the other side of the bed to sense for Suvi but she couldn’t feel her there.

A minute later she had regained most of her ability to see and think and so she looked around her room in search for her girlfriend, she was posted on the couch with a cup in one hand and a datapad in the other. She hadn’t noticed that Sara had woken up yet, she always did get lost in her books.

Sara forced herself upright and pushed herself up, she hadn’t regained her balance yet so she stumbled her way over and threw herself down next to her, making her jump as she did. Suvi dropped the datapad and stared at Sara with love in her heart and a smile on her face. “good morning, I didn’t know you were up yet”.

Sara snuggled up next to her, wrapped her arms around her and rested her head on her shoulder. The fun didn’t last long before trouble came knocking on the door, as usual she gestured to the door and the pieces slid away from each other.

It was Cora coming to spoil the fun, she scanned the bed and when she didn’t see either of them she looked around the rest of the room. When she saw them on the couch she began to speak, “we’re almost to Veold, you need to get ready to go”.

Sara groaned as it all dawned on her what she’d was going to be up against, she hated tangling with the Kett, the way they fought was a nuisance. Suvi could tell she didn’t want to go but always being the logical one stepped in to add to the annoyance, “go on Sara get ready I’ll be fine here”.

She frowned as she pulled herself away from Suvi’s warmth and carried herself over to the door, causing Suvi to giggle behind her.

Cora looked to Sara in amusement as she grumbled past her, she said something as she went, “get the others up will you”. Without a word, Cora turned away and made her way back up to PeeBee’s room, she didn’t really like dealing with PeeBee but it was Sara’s orders so she couldn’t argue with it.

As she turned the shower on she could feel the heat is was giving off, while she was more preferential to a bath, a shower did the same job, not just cleaning away the dirt but also the tiredness and the stress of Andromedan life.

The water was just what she needed, her muscles twitched and started to go numb as they loosened. As always, the heat and the steam sent her into her own head and took her from the real world.

\---

The shuttle was nearing the location of the Kett facility as the storm outside grew stronger and stronger, when they got the Moshea they would only have so long to get her to the shuttle for the exfil.

As the shuttle pushed on further the facility came into view over the horizon, it stood tall like the command base did when it was still manned. It gave off a sinister aura as it stood still in the mountains.

The shuttle descended in front of the shield and the team departed, it consisted of the pathfinder team and a resistance squad who was there for some of the expertise. The door flew open to allow the teams to hop planet-side.

Sara and Jaal moved up to the shield generator to evaluate what they may need to do, she knew from Evfra that it would take too long to get past it but she hoped that Sam might be able to pull something off.

“Sam, could you get this shield down and get us through”, after a second her omni-tool lit up on her arm, “this should only take a minute”. She turned to the shield and waited for it to drop, it took a while so her confidence was beginning to waver. “Sam? Are you sure you can get through- “. Before she could finish, a small hole in the shield opened in front of them, “thanks Sam”.

They began the short walk up the hill between them and the facility, she was nearly at the top when one of her ears twitched. She could hear the distinctive growls of a pair of Kett wraiths someone in the era. She put up her gun and began the scan of her surroundings.

They were well camouflaged in the snow but not good enough for the improved sights that Sam had given her, with two quick shots to the head the two wraiths dropped their camo and then to the floor, earning her a look of surprise from Jaal. “good job”, he shouted over the harsh wind that was now blowing. She pushed on to the vents and brought her arm up so that she could get a scan of it, a moment later, Sam came through on the comms, “these blades are strong but they are brittle, you should be able to break them with small arms fire”.

She had limited ammunition on her so she used her pistol instead of her rifle to get rid of the blades and crawled in as quietly as she could.

\---

Suvi was in her chair on the bridge listening in on everything that was happening, she didn’t usually eavesdrop in on the mission but given the circumstances she was more worried than she usually was. So far it wasn’t too bad, she had gotten through the shield and was now in the base so she wasn’t too on the edge of her seat.

The rest of the team were also on the bridge listening to it all, Cora was especially interested in the events so she was sat on the divider beside Suvi, also listening in on how things were going. Liam, Drack and Vetra were all having their own conversations as it went by but kept one ear open for anything disturbing.

\---

The doors clamped shut behind them as they peered through the window in the wall, a blue mist was dropping on them from the ceiling. Sam’s modulated voice came through out loud, “decontamination protocol”.

“Sam can you figure out way out of this?”, her voice was rich with concern and agitation. She turned her attention to what was happening outside in the next room, something horrid was happening.

The Cardinal was stood before an Angara with what looked like needles in his hands, he took a step towards the Angara and injected it with the needles. What she saw was something against anything she had ever seen before, it’s blood was running black and it’s body was changing in front of them. From the skin came protrusions of bone, then she realized what she was seeing, the Angara had turned into the Kett.

She couldn’t find the words to say, she wanted to say something but she just didn’t know what she wanted to say. All she could do was to look to the others to see what they had to say about it, she was so wrapped up with what she saw that she didn’t even notice that Jaal was banging the butt of his rifle against the glass in a desperate attempt to smash it and break in.

“bypass complete”, the doors parted and Jaal threw himself through in a fit of rage, Sara and PeeBee following suite. After the fight, Jaal dropped his rifle and ran over to the now Kett lying dead on the floor, he began weeping, everything he k new about the war he was fighting was wrong, he wasn’t just fighting the Kett, he was fighting his own people.

Sara lay a hand on his shoulder as he tried to stop the tears from flowing, his body was shaking and his lips trembling, “how many, how many have I killed and not known that it was my own people”.

“you couldn’t have known Jaal, there was nothing you could do about it”, PeeBee interrupted them to inform her that she would be looking for the Moshea.

“guys I found her”, Sara handed Jaal back his rifle and took of for PeeBee location, there the Cardinal was trying to escape, she wasn’t going to let that happen after what she had seen.

The Cardinal was dead, the facility was destroyed and they had retrieved the Moshea, the shuttle trip back to the base had a completely different atmosphere than it did on the way there. For one Sara could barely stand up, she had to resort to sitting on the floor between everyone.

\---

The team trudged back up the ramp to the Tempest being filled with shouts and cheers, they had all listened to what happened and were all glad that they were back. Sara caught Suvi out of the corner of her eye and flashed her a false smile as she broke away from the others and made her way to the armory.

Getting her armour off was a struggle, she could barely get her arms up, never mind getting them into all the hard to reach places around her body, in the end she just relied upon using her biotics to pull it all off, she didn’t have the energy to do anything.

As she left the armory, Suvi again caught her eye, but this time she didn’t try and put on a smile or wave, she just looked away with the same blank expression as she shambled her way to the showers.

She pressed the button and waited for the water to heat up, when she felt that it was hot enough for her, she stepped in and within moments she collapsed onto the floor. She wanted to close her eyes but when she couldn’t, every time she did she would see it again, the helpless Angara being turned into something else, the mortifying sight of the bones coming out of places they shouldn’t be, and the screams of two fiends as they barreled there way towards the shuttle. Every time she closed her eyes it would start again, and then again and again until she opened her eyes.

The tears were breaking free from her eyes, she remembered the sight of Jaal weeping next to one of the exalted, loosing himself in the moment, it was too much, she saw something that had changed her forever. The sight of someone so strong and brave breaking down there and then was overwhelming and she herself began to weep uncontrollably.

The water shut off above her, leaving her cold and wet, but that is how she felt, cold on the inside and empty.

\---

Suvi bounded into her room anticipated Sara being pleased with herself and happy with the result but that is not what she saw, what she saw was Sara asleep on the bed with red eyes and a tear stained face, she choked on the spot, what had she done and why didn’t she come and find her if she was feeling this way.

She started to tear up herself, she knew what had happened just by looking at it, she didn’t want to wake her but she also wanted to talk about how she was feeling. She climbed into bed next to Sara and whispered to Sam over in the corner, “if she starts having nightmares or wakes up in the middle of the night then wake me up”.

“of course doctor”.

She found it hard to sleep, knowing Sara looked like, she didn’t want to imagine Sara crying alone, hidden away from the rest of the crew, she wouldn’t want the rest of the crew to see her like this so she hid herself for their sake. Eventually even she had to give into the darkness and drift off to sleep.

\---

The blue mist that dropped from the roof, the eerie silence that filled the room around them and the sight that made her blood run cold on the inside. It was torture, she was forced to watch it over and over, again and again until her body tried to fight back in the real world. She fought and she fought but not matter what she always ended up in the same place.

Sam, now noticing her struggle, attempted to rise Suvi from her sleep like she had requested that he do. He had buzzed her omni-tool a couple of times before she noticed that she was being awoken, a groan came from her body as she took a second to work out what was going on. It took her a split second to come to the realization of what was happening, without hesitation she rolled over to try and get Sara out of it

She had never seen anything like it, she had seen many nightmares before growing up with 4 other siblings but nothing like this before, she was sweating profusely, murmuring bits and pieces and her arms were jostling from side to side.

After hours of fighting this seemingly endless horror, she was woken by a familiar but soft voice coming from beside her, “it’s alright your ok, your safe come on wake up”.

“Suvi?”, she didn’t fully recognize the voice until she rolled over to the source, the lights weren’t on but the moonlight through the window was enough to show the smooth outline of Suvi’s face. Her body stopped fighting itself, a single tear broke free from her eye. as she reached out for Suvi’s embrace.

Suvi lifted herself and moved over to the other side of the bed, she wrapped Sara in her arms while she began to settle. The touch of Suvi’s loving arms was what she needed right now, the fact that she was there and caring for her was enough.

Suvi took her left arm and began to slowly caress Sara’s hair in attempt to calm her down. To see her in this state broke her on the inside, she always did so much to Suvi and never asked for anything in return, she knew she would have to change it after this.

Her mind was still a mess and she still couldn’t really speak, every time she tried it she would either end up slurring slightly or saying one word and then losing her train of thought. “Suvi – “. She was cut off by Suvi placing her finger on her lips.

Her voice was soft as she spoke and she really sounded like she cared in the moment, “don’t try and talk yet…you’ve just been through hell and back”.

Before she could say anything else, the lights flickered on and the door split open, leaving both of them blinded and disorientated. As Suvi got her sight back she saw how bad it really was, Sara’s face was pale and colorless like the blood had refused to flow, her skin was glistening with sweat all over and her arms were still twitching under the stress of what she had been subjected to.

She turned to the door to see Lexi completely horror stricken and shocked, she rushed over to Sara on the bed and began to do her poking around. She turned her head in a hurry to Suvi in her investigation, “Suvi, what happened?”.

Suvi was still half asleep but she managed to get something out, “nightmare, or some kind of PTSD or something”. Lexi knew from what she saw that she would need to keep and eye on her for the rest of the night, so she needed to get her to the medbay but she had a problem. Since she was a psychologist she could see Sara’s eccedentesiast attitude a mile away and always tried to keep those kinds of emotions from the rest of the crew. Waking up one of the others wasn’t an option and she knew that Suvi wasn’t strong enough to lift her.

“Suvi, I need to get her into the medbay without asking one of the other crew, any ideas?”. Her voice sounded urgent so she automatically got to thinking. Considering that there was only the two of them there it made the possibilities somewhat limited. After racking her brain for a moment she came to the only real conclusion that she could come to. “Lexi! You could use your biotics to move her there”.

Lexi snapped her head in Suvi’s direction, “are you sure that’s a good idea?”, Suvi shrugged her shoulders in response, “it’s the only idea I have so…”. She could do nothing but sigh, she didn’t see how else she was supposed to do it so she guessed it would have to do”.

She took a large step back from the bed and held out her hand, as a doctor it had been a while since she had done anything with her biotics so she really had to focus on it. As Sara rose from the bed surrounded by the field of purple energy it became obvious how much she had been sweating, it dripped off her onto the dark shaded bed sheets she had been sleeping on.

\---

Lexi slowly lowered the barely conscious Sara onto the medical bed and had Sam begin monitoring him, Suvi shuffled into the room quietly and sat down in the chair next to Sara’s bed. Like she was the last time, she was willing to sit out the night in the chair like she had once before.

Lexi lowered herself into her chair and rolled it up to her desk, she had spent many a sleeping on her desk so it wasn’t something new. Suvi knew should try and get back to sleep but she couldn’t help but think about the fact that Sara might need her and she wouldn’t be able to if she was sleeping, so the silence of the medbay would have to do.


	23. I don't feel anything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the rescue is over, but for Sara, she would have to deal with a new reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please let me know your thoughts on my decision to go this route with one of the relationship issues.

The next morning, Suvi and Lexi were talking between themselves, unaware of the fact that Sara had already woken up and was listening to what they were saying. Suvi took a sip from her cup of tea before making a comment on how pale Sara’s skin still was, “I was expecting it to have started to go back to its normal colour by now, but it hasn’t yet”. Sara, having heard this, turned to the nearest shiny surface to see her reflection.

Upon seeing her pale, colorless face she couldn’t find the need to say anything, the need to do anything, she just sighed at the state of herself. The unaware pair in the corner of the room threw their arms up in front of them in surprise of realizing that she was awake. Lexi jumped from her chair and rushed over while Suvi, still tired took the slower more observant option.

Lexi’s voice was filled with concern and urgency as she spoke, “how do you feel?”. Sara searched for something that she could say but she couldn’t find anything, she didn’t feel anything, she wasn’t upset or feel any kind of depression but she just couldn’t feel anything. “not a lot of anything to be honest”, her voice was quiet and weak compared to what it normally would be.

The look on both Lexi’s and Suvi’s faces went from concerned to worried before Lexi said anything else, her fears were being confirmed. She cautioned the two on what she thought could be happening, “judging on what I’ve seen I think this might be PTSD, the nightmare, pale skin and the unexplainable emptiness are some of the symptoms. It could also be depression but considering what has happened I wouldn’t go for it”. She took a breath before adding to what she said, “I could give you some medicine to try and help with it but I want you go today and just see how things go”.

Suvi grabbed Sara by the hand while she still had her eyes locked on Lexi, “is she allowed to move around the ship or does she have to stay in her quarters”. Her voice was shaky after what she had heard and was thinking about ways that she could help her to try and recover from it.

“she can go where she wants to but I don’t want her doing anything really exerting as to avoid other complications, we are currently en route to Aya to drop off the Moshea so you are still needed on the bridge but you can take more breaks than usual to check in on her”. She walked back over to her desk and threw herself in the chair, “I will be in here for a while but I will be going for a nap for a while to get some sleep”.

Suvi slowly moved her head to Sara in the bed and used her arm to help her sit up, Sara got up from the bed herself and began the shuffle over to the door. As she was about to leave she turned to Suvi and asked her a question, “can you do me a favor?”, she hummed her answer back, “can you check if there is anyone between me and my room, I don’t want the rest of the crew to see me like this”.

Suvi stuck her head out from the door and tugged on Sara’s hand to tell her that the coast was clear, Sara had her head to the floor and stared at her feet as she made her way down the corridor. As she passed through the doors to her room she started to feel a little better, not a lot but a little. She avoided her bed and swerved over to her couch where she dropped herself and turned to look out the window.

“Suvi…”. She turned back to her girlfriend and pulled her in close so that she could hear her quiet tone, “just because I don’t really feel anything right now, doesn’t mean I haven’t stopped feeling the way I do about you”. She placed a long, sincere kiss on her forehead before letting go of her hand, “thank you”.

Suvi moved closer to the broken woman who was hunched on the couch as a tear tried to break free from her eye, “call me if you need me, ill be right here”. She returned Sara’s kiss on head and turned to head for the door. She needed to get herself washed up if she wanted to hide the fact that she had been worked up or else someone would start asking questions, and she didn’t want to have to think of something to say to them if they did.

\---

Sara’s comm link lit up on her wrist, causing her to come back into reality, it was Kallo, “we will be arriving at Aya soon so you should probably get ready to give the Angara back the Moshea”. She scrunched up her face at the very thought of seeing all the Angara again after what happened, she couldn’t see them again the same way as she did before, something about them was different now than it was.

First, she needed to clean herself up and make sure that physically she looked decent enough to look okay. The shower was helpful in making her look much better but the falling water did nothing but bring here mind back to the decontamination protocol that had covered her as she watched the horror unfold.

Next up was making sure she had something to eat, she didn’t want to have anything but she of all people knew that if she didn’t eat at least something that it would only make it worse, so some toast and a cup of tea was what it was, but it was worth more than that when she thought about all of the good memories she’d made while she drank tea and talked with Suvi all evening.

Finally there was checking in with Lexi to see if she had anything more to say on it now that most of the day had passed. She crept into the medbay to try and avoid making too much noise but when she got there she was greeted by Lexi and Suvi talking with each other again, she knew it was probably about her again.

After laying her eyes on the now slightly more healed Sara, Lexi’s face lit up in amazement that she now looked the way she did, “Sara your looking so much better than you did this morning”, her happiness was short lived as Sara answered for herself, “don’t be fooled Lex, I’ve gotten ready to look like this, I don’t really feel much different than I did”. She could see the smile on Lexi’s face immediately drop back into concern.

“come back in once you have dropped off the Moshea, I want to talk with you about this very real problem”, Sara’s voice was flat and empty, “alright, I will”. Sara had learnt that from a young age that no matter how bad she felt that she should always follow the doctor’s orders, and now wasn’t t time to argue with Lexi.

\---

The Tempest groaned quietly as it hit the landing pad just outside of the city, Sara was waiting in the cargo bay next to the Moshea ready to go drop her off with her people.

“I’ll be glad when she is off the ship”, she said to herself in her mind, she had nothing against the Moshea but for as long as she was off the ship she would be reminded of what happened and be forced to see it again.

The door slid open to feel the relaxing ambiance of Aya’s air. Compared to the atmosphere of the Tempest it was cool and thin whereas the one she was now used to was thick and warmer than it really should be.

She began her walk down the ramp next to but slightly behind the Moshea, this was here return, she was just there to see it all off, she didn’t even want to be thanked, just to see it off.

The Angarans exploded into thunderous applause at the sight of their beloved Moshea step out of the Tempests shadow, much to the annoyance of Sara’s head that wouldn’t be able to take much more of it.

As she spoke with Evfra and Jaal on the landing pad bridge, she accepted her thank yous and secured Jaal’s position on her team. She was happy to have him on her team, he was: reliable, understanding and an amazing sniper shot that she had never seen anything close to before. She knew he would fit in on her team as he had been getting along with everyone so far, she wasn’t worried about it.

After getting her official thanks from the Moshea herself, she wasted no time in getting back to her room so that she could let her guard back down, she was caught on the way there by Lexi who was stood outside the medbay waiting for her return.

“come on Sara, we need to talk”, she feared what Lexi was going to say about it, she didn’t want anything too extreme to happen, after all she had been through, she didn’t want it to go too far. The talk was long and tedious, draining yet elevating for Sara, she could talk about how she felt in the comfort that Lexi know what she was talking about.

They both agreed that it was time for everyone to get some shore leave and cool off a little before they jumped back into anything over the top, Sara needed it of all people, she had not been coping with it well. “the whole crew is going to be on shore leave for the next two weeks while you heal from the mental problems that you have been struck with. They can remain on the ship or they can go elsewhere but nobody will be on duty”. Her voice was stern yet caring and understanding.

In the end Lexi knew it was for the betterment of the team as a way of ensuring that they remain in a mental state that is required for the harsh reality of Andromeda. They wouldn’t like it but there was they could do the change the fact that they needed to be mentally balanced.

Sara knew she would benefit from some time off but she didn’t like the idea of spending all that time off without having Suvi by her side, she was slightly hesitant but, in the end, she signed off on it to make it official. She would have to send a report to Tann about why they were off but it would be worth it.


	24. she's only human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexi and Suvi deal with the task of informing the crew of future arrangements.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter probably doesn't hold much water in the story but i felt like i should write it anyways, as a way of keeping the Tempest family grounded.

Most of the crew filtered up the ramps up to the meeting room at the request of Lexi, but as it turned out she was the only one who wasn’t there. She was still in the medbay typing away at her omni-tool, sending Sara an email with a request. She had realized a moment ago that the crew would be asking questions and she needed to come up with answers.

Sara was curled up on her couch when her terminal pinged from the corner, “Sam can you read me that email?”, “yes pathfinder”.

“it’s from Lexi and reads: I know your attitude towards your crew is that you are always ok but I think you need to tell them or at least let me tell them, I’m about to tell them about the shore leave and we both know they will be asking questions about the sudden change of pace. Please get back to me as soon as you can”.

She let out a heavy sigh as she turned back towards the window behind her, she knew it was only a matter of time before she would have to tell them, at least she wouldn’t have to be there when she did.

“Sam, send back that she can tell them, but tell her that I don’t really want to see anyone right now”, “of course”, Sam’s voice was still flat but she liked that about him, there was never any kind of emotion no matter what. It made hard times like this that little bit easier. 

The crew was getting restless in the meeting room, PeeBee was growing impatient and was close to leaving and going back to her escape pod. “why are we here? Nobody here called it and I notice three distinct people are missing.

Lexi marched up the ramp now with confirmation that she could tell them a purpose to be here, “don’t you go anywhere PeeBee”, her tone was stern yet calm like normal. She never did raise her voice, but she knew how to get the right tone across.

The rest of the crew stopped the chattering and all turned their attention to Lexi who was stood next to Jaal with a space at her other side for Suvi who was approaching from behind her”.

She took a breath before she began to speak, “I called you all here to tell you all that from tomorrow onwards you are all having two weeks of shore leave from duty, now I know that you’re going to have questions so if we can just go one by one and keep this in order”.

The room suddenly filled with an awkward, uncomfortable silence. They all liked the idea of having some time off but they didn’t know why this had come out of nowhere and nobody was sure of what they should say about it.

PeeBee was the first to speak as per usual, she didn’t really care about the why but she did care about the rules, “where am I allowed to go for this shore leave?”, she had energy and had clearly gotten some excitement out of the news.

“you can go anywhere you want but you have to be back on the Nexus two weeks from tomorrow, anyone have anything else”, she looked around the table to see the distinct look of curiosity from Cora and the hot headed absent mindedness from Liam.

He was the first to speak, “what? Of all the times to get shore leave and she chose now, why?”. Cora added to the end of his question with one of her own, “yeah, where is Sara anyway?”.

Suvi and Lexi let out a tandem sigh as she realized that they would have to tell them about the poor pathfinder, “well, she is currently having some mental problems and didn’t want to be here right now, she has asked that we respect her privacy and leave her with herself.

Suvi could tell that she was struggling to tell them the whole story so she jumped in to fill the gaps, “what Lexis trying to say is that Sara has PTSD and is showing signs of depression, the next two weeks are meant to give you all some time to catch up with people or to get some things done while Lexi and I try to help her get back into it”.

The room was still quiet, nobody was saying anything but the look on everyone’s faces were saying more than words could. They felt betrayed that Sara would hide that from them, they were family, why didn’t she tell them that she felt that way?

Liam was impulsive, he didn’t think before he spoke and his anger usually showed more than it should, that’s why Suvi flinched at what he said next, “what, why wouldn’t she tell us, we deserve to know about this, and you Lexi, why didn’t you tell us?”. His tone was loud and brash, but Suvi was going to stand up for her girlfriend and for the doctor who was trying to help her.

“Hey! Sara does not need to share all her personal details with you, she has a right to keep it to herself if she wants to! “, she hadn’t scolded anyone like that in a long time, not since she was a child at least, she teared up at the thought of Sara feeling the way she did causing her voice to crack as she went on, “She has her reasons for keeping to herself, one that you should all be seeing now is the disruption it would have cause between you all, she knew that if word got out the moral of the crew would fall, and she didn’t want that, that’s how she is”

By now the tears were falling freely from her eyes as she focused her gaze on the two other humans on the team, “and most importantly…she’s only human…”.

The atmosphere in the room had changed, Cora was no longer looking so bright and Liam had dropped his argument in favor of a blank look.

Lexi lay a hand on her shoulder as she turned to walk away from the table, “I think it’s time we leave them to their thoughts”, Suvi didn’t say anything but turned away and trailed behind the doctor as they made their way back to Ryder’s quarters.

\---

“she’s only human”, it played again and again, Cora had never seen Suvi lash out like that before. “she must be done with Liam’s attitude by now”, she couldn’t blame her honestly, it was getting on her nerves as well.

How was she so blind? After something like that, how did she not think about the effects it might have on someone like Sara.

She knew she had to fix this, she crawled out from her bunk and took the short trip to the end of the hallways, the door was sealed from the inside. There was a sound coming from the inside, she didn’t know what was being said but she knew who was talking, Lexi and Suvi were in there talking with Sara over something. She didn’t want to disturb them but she knew she had to fix her issue with herself.

She lifted her arm and knocked on the door with her trademark rhythm, when she got no answer back she moved on to raising her voice so that she could hear he, “Sara?”. A second went by before a voice she barely recognized came back, “I don’t really feel like talking right now, sorry”. She already knew from the sound of her voice how broken she was, how much she needed to be left alone right now, “she’s only human…”, was all she could say.


	25. picking up the pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexi sees what Sara has pent up.

Sara passed through the doors into the cargo bay where the rest of the crew were waiting for touch down on the Nexus, it was time for the shore leave that Sara had been waiting for. Nobody had noticed that Sara was there, the only two who were not going on shore leave with the others were Suvi and Lexi. Suvi just wanted to spent some time with Sara, not as a science officer and not just as a friend, but as a girlfriend as she liked to be. Lexi was there to pick up the pieces from where Sara had been broken, Sara was happy to have Lexi as her doctor, because she was more than a doctor, she was her friend who she trusted with her secrets.

The team were mingling with each other, giving off a nice and calm atmosphere, there was no panic, no jobs to be done, they just had time to talk with one another as people. Cora initially turned around to talk with Vetra but instead she saw Sara’s boots from the top of her eyes, as she remembered what had happened the night before, she tilted her head up to see if the face matched the different voice.

Her face was pale, her eyes looked like they hadn’t been closed for days and her body looked frail and weak. She choked at sight of the poor woman, she was locked in her quarters for two days not allowing for anyone to see her, Cora was starting to understand why she wouldn’t he crew to see her like this.

Her choking caught the attention of PeeBee, who in all her curiosity turned around to see what had shaken the Asari commando like that. The first thing she did was scream, “Oh my god!”, this garnered the attention of the rest of the crew and soon they all too turned around to see about the commotion.

The room fell silent, nobody knew what to do with the information they had now, the once upset Cora was no longer upset at the hiding but now was upset at the sight of her broken friend.

The room was filled with the roaring of the landing engines as they touched down on the landing pad on the Nexus and the motors croaked as the cargo door slid open so that they could leave.

Without a word, Sara moved to the lift and lowered herself to their level, one by one she hugged her crew on their way out, she knew they cared about her but that doesn’t do much for her mind in that state. An empty ship now left an empty space within her, it hurt to have an empty ship but it was for the best of herself and rest of the crew.

\---

The team dispersed themselves among the shuttles in the port, going to each relevant shuttle for their desired destination. Drack hopped on the one for Elaaden, it was the home of his colony and the home of his grandchildren and friends, he was going to spend some time at home. Jaal hopped on the shuttle for Havarl, he was going to spend some time with his family, he didn’t want fighting for a while. PeeBee left the dock in search for her apartment where she had a special project just wanting to be complete. Vetra walked away and made her way to the ops center to spend time with Sid and do her work from the comfort of an apartment. Gill headed off in the direction of the apartments, he would be spending some time with his friend Jill for the next two weeks, allowing himself to drop the Brodie facade fir a while.

That only left Cora and Liam, he went back to the ops center to help deal with the security issues, leaving Cora by herself with nobody really to see or nowhere really to go. She turned around and walked right back onto the Tempest where Sara still stood with a look of confusion on her face.

“what are you doing back, you don’t need to be here,”. Cora placed her hands on Sara’s shoulders and explained herself, “I don’t have anyone to see or anywhere to go, so I’ll go where you go and spend some time there while you’re there”.

Sara tilted her head and furrowed her brow before she answered, "we're spending the two weeks on Eos, you should know”, Cora sighed, she hated Eos, there was too much sand and not enough things to shoot at, “I have nothing better to do so I guess let’s go”.

\---

The shuttle that Drack was in set down in the dessert of Elaaden, getting lost in the mountain of golden sand that and beaming sun, he was glad to be back where he knew he was welcome. He knew he was welcome on the Tempest, but it wasn’t the same as being at home.

Now he could relax and be with the other Krogan that he didn’t have to explain things to like he did the others, but maybe that was part of the fun. The guards outside the colony knew his face from a mile away and didn’t hesitate to let him through, they knew who he was.

‘New Tuchanka’ was what Drack saw when he thought of paradise: hot, Dangerous, muddy, full of things to shoot at and most importantly, his grandchildren, at night he would read them stories or tell them his own for the enjoyment.

Cooking was one of the other things he enjoyed doing, he had many to feed and knew how to make a good meal. Anything from pies to cakes, he could make it. And he was more than happy to, until he remembered why he was there, he wasn’t there by choice or because Sara said he could, but he was there because someone was suffering somewhere else, “there always has to be a downer” he thought to himself.

The longer he spent back on Elaaden the better it felt for him to be there, there was always something that needed to be done or a fight that needed to be started. It brought him back to who he was and why he did the things that he did, it made him happy to be there. But he knew before too long he’d be back on the Tempest flying of to the middle of nowhere for some random reason. Though the longer he thought, it didn’t sound so bad.

\---

PeeBee was in her apartment on the Nexus, she had a special something that she needed to finish before she went back the Tempest. It was something that surprised even herself that she managed to achieve. A reprogrammed remnant observer hovered in place as the tentacles swung back and fourth as it beeped to itself.

PeeBee was proud of what she had made, she was proud that she took something so incredibly alien and strange, but still get it to do what she wanted it to. That was why she was here in the first place, to figure things out and get things done that others hadn’t done before.

As much as she enjoyed the freedom of being by herself, she lived a lonely life, after what happened with Kalinda anyways, she left PeeBee with nothing but sour memories and nowhere to go, leading to her remnant escapades.

She didn’t often leave the comforts of her apartment due to the fact the she didn’t really know anyone and she wasn’t about to change it.

\---

Vetra walked up to one of the consoles in the ops centre next to another Turian she knew well, Sid, her sister. It had been too long since they had been able to spend any time together recently so Vetra was looking forward to it.

The pair headed for Vortex, the most common bar on the Nexus, they occupied the booth in the corner as they caught up where they left off the last time she left. But this time she didn’t have to go through all of it, she had some time for a change.

\---

Liam was running around like a headless chicken for most of the day, he offered to chip in at the security division while he had the time, this is not what he expected to be happening right around now, there was never a break in the madness, there was always something else that needed ding and someone else that needed to be seen to.

Just because he was used to it being crisis response, didn’t mean that he enjoyed it, he hadn’t even worked this hard on the Tempest somehow, but it was still more stressful than this so he was thankful for the reprieve.

It would stay this way for the first week before he gave in and left for the other week so that he could actually get some resting in, his couch was comfy enough but his bed was comfier by a large margin and didn’t need to handle the brunt of an overclocked omni-blade so it didn’t get damaged either.

\---

Sara awoke in her bed with the same empty, cold feeling she had been handling for the past few days and she was getting sick of it. She rolled herself onto her side so that she could stare at her sleeping beauty. She was lying on her back with her hands locked over her stomach, apart from spooning it was Sara’s favourite way for her to sleep because it showed all of her face and that is something that she would never grow tired of.

There came a ring at her door, it could only be Lexi or Cora so she waved her hand at it and let it open, Lexi strode in with the look of worry and determination that she had been sporting since this whole thing began.

“Sara how are you feeling”, her voice was smooth and had the calming effect that she was really appreciative of, “not a whole lot better Lexi”.  She let out a heavy sigh before sitting up and throwing on her gown, covering Suvi back up when she was done. She moved over to the couch and sunk into one side.

Lexi stepped over, placing a datapad on the table sitting herself on the couch opposite to Sara so that she could face her.

Lexi had come to terms with how this might go, she accepted that there might come a point when a low level meld might be the only way that she can understand why Sara feels the way she does, but she would have to lay the idea out slowly and try not to scare her too much in case it caused some other complication.

“do you think you can talk about it at all, the more I know the more I can help you”. She picked up the datapad from the table and began to read something from the screen. “I don’t know Lexi, it scares me to think about it never mind talking about it”, it was a whisper, she couldn’t raise her voice any higher than then when it came to the subject. It had impacted her so hard that it changed who she was as a person.

Lexi placed down the datapad she had in her hand and stood up from the couch, “I’m going to get us all something to drink, can you please get Suvi up for me please”. She walked away without really looking back.

Sara hauled herself from the couch and slowly made her way back to the bed to wake up Suvi like she had been asked to. Suvi was a light sleeper which while wouldn’t waken to loud noises, would waken to physical contact. Sara ran her hands through Suvi’s fiery red hair while she started to naturally talk with her in her calm and light tone.

Suvi began to twitch as the sensation pulled her from her sleep, first it was her eyes and her mouth and then it was the arms moving, slowly her eyes opened and then widened at the sight of Sara looking down on her, a smile on her face. “Hey, why’d you wake me up”, she didn’t sound mad or upset, instead it was calm and shallow like she was when she was trying to be understanding and kind. Sara reached over and held her by one of her hands, “Lexi asked me to, I don’t know why though”.

Suvi furrowed her brow, if Sara didn’t know yet then what could it be, but before she could ask anything more the door hissed open and Lexi came back through with some tea. She handed one to Sara and one to Suvi before she sat on the end of the bed and turned herself to look at them.

“the reason I wanted you to get Suvi up is because I’ve concluded that Sara is in no real position of self-health to talk about this but I want to get to the bottom of it before it destroys her from the inside. I thought about the best way I could do this without doing too much damage to anyone, and I think I have found a way to do it”. The pair stared at her with multiple expressions at once, concern, curiosity and then confusion.

“a low level meld so that we can send and receive those memories and figure what we can about it”, both Sara and Suvi turned to each other at the same time and put on the same worried face, Suvi broke eye contact and turned to the other Asari, “what has this got to do with me though?”. Her voice was still rough from waking up, she hadn’t had time to think about it.

The doctor turned to her and with full confidence and said, “you are going to be involved too, this is going to be three ways so that you can see what I am seeing and both of you can see what I see, that way you can better understand this as well as me, she is going to need both of us to get through this Suvi”. Suvi’s face lit up like a tomato, not because she was embarrassed but because she was worried about what she might see.

“won’t that be invasive?”, the worry very clear in her voice.

“not really, we will only see what Sara let’s us see, and I don’t think we have many options at this point honestly”, she was confident and reassuring in the way that she spoke, hoping that it would ease it for them.

Suvi lifted one of her hands and moved it over so that Lexi could hold it, “I want to help you Sara, let us help you…”.

That is all she needed to say, to see that Suvi was willing to do something so alien and unnatural for her all to help then it must be worth it, with that she held out her hand to Lexi, she had melded before so she knew what to expect, or so she thought.

The things that Lexi saw in Sara’s dimmed and scarred mind was something that she had never seen anything like before, all the things she had seen, all the pain that she had been through, the now first-hand experience with the exhalation and finally all the things that she was unable to say, all the feelings that were pent up her mind were all there.

She struggled to make sense of it all, she was a psychologist after all but that didn’t change the fact that this was the worst she had seen a mind like this. So much pain and anger sitting in one place. It was almost too much, even for her.

As for Suvi she couldn’t take much more, whereas Lexi took in every little detail she could see, Suvi just let it all in and looked at bits and pieces as they went by in her head. “how did she cope with all this?”, “I don’t know”, a voice echoed, it was Lexi, her mind able to speak with hers through the meld.

As Lexi came back down into reality followed by the other two all of them coated in sweat and shudders. “I don’t even…”, her voice was rough even for her.

Suvi soon followed her back in reality though she didn’t look like she wanted to say anything either, much to the horror of the pair, Sara did not. Her eyes had returned to their normal colour but she wasn’t there.

“Sam?!”, Suvi letting the worry out through her voice. A minute passed before the synthetic voice came back, “Sara is currently distrait and her brain is not connecting with her senses.

\---

Everything was dark, everything was silent. She had showed all she could remember with her doctor and her girlfriend, but she didn’t return, she new the meld was over but she didn’t come back. She saw it all, everything she showed she saw it first. Everything that had happened went by in a flash. The muddle of pain and pleasure, loss and gain, the fullness of feeling and the sensation of being completely empty. She saw it all…

\---

Without a word her arm raised to meet Suvi’s wrist which was still on her shoulder, “Suvi”,

“Sara- “, her voice faltering before she could continue.

“do you see now, do you see why I wanted to hide.”, her voice broke further as she spoke.

Suvi added her other arm to Sara’s other shoulder and pulled her closer for a hug. They both broke out into tears in the instance.

Lexi knew she wasn’t needed right now, she got off the bed and left to tend to her own thoughts.

Sara spent the night in her partners embrace, trying to pick up the pieces. 


	26. if that's what you want

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suvi has something she needs to talk about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know my descriptions of the body are absolutely terrible so please let me know how i can try and rectify it.

The next day had managed some better results than the first one had. She had been awake for the past 2 hours but didn’t want to go anywhere. The bed was warm with a beautiful woman still in her arms, she watched the sun rise over the golden plains and she felt just like that little bit better about things.

“this is going well”, she said to herself in the silence, it was until the ping of her omni-tool bounced off the walls around her bed. A groan escaped her mouth.

_Subject: well being of the pathfinder_

_From: Lexi T’Perro_

_To: Sara Ryder_

_I know that taking drives in the Nomad always seem to cheer you up, so on medical grounds I request that you take a drive for a while and distract yourself with the view you like so much._

_L. T’Perro_

A groan again escaped, as much as she hated to admit it, she was right, driving around Eos always did make her feel a bit better.

But how was she going to get out. She still had Suvi wrapped up with one of her arms under her, the doctor was prone to waking up at the feeling of movement. She slowly pulled her arm out from underneath before putting her head over making sure she didn’t wake her.

She pulled of the covers and forced herself off the bed, she sauntered over to her draws and found something clean to where. She stripped down and changed quickly to avoid getting too cold.

She jumped at the soft whistle coming from the bed, she turned to see a beautiful pair of bright blue eyes looking in her direction, a mixed look on her face,

“how long have you been watching?”, she was curious but at the same time she was worried.

“since you got out of bed”, as soon as she finished she could see some of the colour faded from her face. “what’s wrong?” her previous light and mischievous voice now replaced with a smoother more concerned tone.

She hesitated for a second, “it’s nothing, it’s just, just that you hadn’t seen me naked yet, that’s all”.

She was right, “oh”, she rolled over so that she was facing away from her, how could she have forgotten that she hadn’t seen it yet? How could she forget that Sara wasn’t fully comfortable with her body? “I’m sorry”, she mumbled, “I- “, she was cut off when Sara rolled her back over and placed a soft kiss on her forehead with a half-smile on her face.

“It’s alright, don’t worry about it”, she sounded fazed by it but her eyes said that she wasn’t upset about it, “stay here until I get back?”. Suvi nodded in return, she was confused as she watched her walk out of the room. She would need to do some digging while she was out.

\---

She pulled up her omni-tool before drafting her email to Lexi.

_Subject: private matter_

_To: Lexi T’Perro_

_From: Suvi Anwar_

_I hope I am not over stepping some boundaries with this. So here I go._

_Sara hasn’t allowed me to see her naked yet. She knows that I admire her body and knows that not I do not want more than to take the next step. I do not know if she doesn’t want me to or if she is uncomfortable with it. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this if you could._

_I hope that you can see this as asking for advice instead of trying to break a boundary._

_S. Anwar_

As she gave a proof read it hit her what she was about to do, she knew she should probably just ask her about it but right now she could do without her asking. She pressed send anyway, hoping she could get something good out of this.

An hour later and she still had no reply from Lexi, she was even more worried now than she was earlier. She was reading some of her notes from a datapad to try and get her mind to drop the issue, it was working for a while until her omni-tool echoed off the walls around the bed.

_Subject: private matter_

_To: Suvi Anwar_

_From: Lexi T’Perro_

_Due to confidentiality I can only tell you so much, but from what she has told me and what I have overheard I can probably tell you that it would be that she is uncomfortable with her body. But that is all that I can tell you, this is an issue that you will need to discuss it between yourselves._

_I hoped this was some help._

_L. T’Perro_

A sense of relief washed over her body, she was just worried that it was something that she had done or maybe said. She dropped her datapad and dropped her head into her hands.

\---

Sara pulled into the cargo bay with the Nomad being cleaner than it usually was and her feeling better than she had felt in a while. The views from the cliffs around the outpost and wind in her hair from the speed makes her feel free from the burden of her title.

From the roaring engine of the quiet humming of the drive core, it was strange, it had been a long while since she heard it as quiet as this. The closest she normally got would be when she would walk the decks at night after everyone else had turned in.

As much as she would have loved to hang around in the peace, she had a woman waiting for her in a nice warm bed. She had taken her shoes off by the time she got back into her quarters, she was ready to get back to where she was earlier, nice and warm, in the peace.

Suvi was waiting in bed like she had been asked to that morning, Sara walked in and headed right for her PJ’s that she had taken off that morning. Remembering what happened she rolled away for her to get changed unseen.

She sat down on her side of the bed and moved her leg back under the quilt and oved closer to Suvi. She wrapped her up and placed a kiss on her lips before nuzzling her head into her shoulder. Suvi loved this part of her getting in bed, she was always so warm and ready to just stay tangled up with each other all day.

“Sara”, she whispered.

“yes?”.

“um, can I ask you something?”, “of course you can”.

Suvi pulled back so that she could look Sara in the eyes, she was soft as she spoke, she didn’t want to upset her, “we’ve been together for a while now but you…haven’t let me, see you naked yet. I want you to know that you can trust me alright?”.  Sara’s face went bright red at the comment and stared down to try and conceal the intense embarrassment she was feeling right now. A heavy sigh following closely after.

“if that’s what you want”, she was quiet but still loud enough to be heard.

Before she could say anything, Sara had rolled back out of the bed facing her with her head still down. She lifted her hands to her shirt and slowly undid them one by one until she had discarded softly on the floor, the same followed with her trousers until she was stood in in her underwear. She had one arm by her side and was holding it with the other one.

She peered up at Suvi to see if she was still looking at her, the concern showing through in her eyes. She’d gone this for so she might as well go for it. She raised both of her arms and pulled the sports bra over her head to let her smooth, rounded breasts drop back to their natural position.

Suvi looked on in anticipation, not because she had some kind of burning sexual desire but because she was being trusted with something that Sara was uncomfortable with. She was being trusted with it, she just wanted Sara to trust her.

Then she dropped her briefs and again she dropped her head down to her feet. She was clean shaven and her skin was smooth to the sight, but she didn’t try and push further.

“get back into bed”, her voice was low and smooth. She did what she was told. As she did she felt the warmth in Suvi’s arms as she pulled her back in towards her. Sara’s face was still red in embarrassment, nuzzling her head into Suvi’s shoulder she could hear her whisper something in her ear.

“you’re beautiful Sara”, she knew that it would be alright.

“do you really think so?”, Suvi replied with no hesitation.

“yes, I do”.

\---

from there things kept on getting just little bits better, the colour had returned to her face, her voice had gone back to normal, leaving behind the empty tone that she had developed, she could focus on the things she was doing and she could feel herself feeling genuinely happy. by the second week, she might be able to enjoy it. 

\---

Lexi rambled her way into the galley for her morning coffee to see something she didn’t expect to, Sara was sat at the table smiling with colour in her face, instead of it being empty and Sara still being asleep at this time in the morning. Suvi next to her with her arms wrapped around her.

“good morning Sara, I see that you’re feeling better”. She tried to hide her excitement in her voice but her body wouldn’t allow her to.

Sara lifted her gaze from Suvi and turned over to the doctor who was now making her coffee, “thanks Lexi but I still need some help”. Lexi careful placed her mug on the table and sat down on Sara’s other side. T was

“how can I help you”, lifting her mug and taking a sip of her morning drink.

“well, I still get tired easily and my body still aches all the time.”, her voice was cheery, instead of the flat, empty tone that she taken over her.

“I’m sure some simple medicine could help with the aching but the tiredness is going have be worked on just by getting good nights sleep and having a normal sleep cycle”.

Sara and Suvi shuffled along the bench before standing to leave the room. She broke away from Suvi and walked over to Lexi, kneeling down so that she was on the same level as she was sitting down. “thanks Lexi, you didn’t have to stay with us here but you did anyway so, thanks “.

She just smiled, no need for anything over sappy or over the top, just something that says, ‘you’re welcome’.

She turned and left, Suvi back in her hands and a good feeling in her chest, a drive would be nice.

\---

She lifted Suvi into the Nomad like she had done once before, but this time she knew it would be calmer than then.

She could see it like it was when she did it the last time, full of nerves and hopes, she could smile on it knowing that it all turned out alright in the end.

It was more peaceful now than she had ever known it to be, most of the Kett had be cleared and the insects had gotten smaller in number compared to what it was. Rising over the embankment, a particular spot of land was coming into view, the place where she had asked Suvi to be her girlfriend, and the place where she had been accepted it with open arms.

The sun still wasn’t at it’s peak so the heat was not overwhelming to be sat in yet. She pulled Suvi into a sideways hug as they sat on the same blanket as they had before, “I’ll be alright”.


	27. back to it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the team get back together before things go back to how they were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if anyone has been waiting for this, I've had a low period over the last month and had no passion to write but I'm back now, so enjoy. 
> 
> if anyone is happy to see this return then please leave a Kudos so i know that people are enjoying it.

“you ready?”.

Sara rolled over to see Suvi already looking at her with a smile, still fully waking up.

She chuckled, “not really, can we stay here for a little longer?”, a smile now growing on her face to match that of her partner. Suvi rolled her eyes lightly in response to Sara’s arguing, “you know we can’t let that happen now can we, someone would think something isn’t quite right”.

A sigh broke free from her lips, “I know…I just want to spend some more time with you that’s all”, leaning in to give Suvi a good morning kiss, meeting her soft lips like the had done in peace for the last 2 weeks. That was over now, they would be heading back to the Nexus to pick up the crew later that day after some more time off.

She sat up and turned back to face Suvi, who was now more awake, “want a cup of tea?”.

“please”.

She got out from under the quilt and walked over to where her gown and been thrown onto the couch, earning her a whistle on the way. She allowed herself an audible laugh in return. Since allowing Suvi to finally see her fully naked, she was less hesitant to walking around their quarters as such every once in a while.

Walking through the doors to the alley, she noticed a distinct lack of noise going on, she was happy to have some time off to heal and get some time with Suvi but she was happy to be getting back her crew.

She made up the cups and sauntered back into her quarters, she handed one off to Suvi and climbed back into the bed. Falling into comfortable silence, she couldn’t help but smile over what had transpired over the last two weeks.

\---

The rumbling and shaking of the Tempest is all she needed to know that she were approaching the landing pad of the Nexus. Reaching over to get Suvi’s attention, she placed a hand on her cheek and turned her head before a long, passionate kiss followed. “this has been amazing babe, I don’t think were going to have time like this again for a long time”.

A smile grew on Suvi’s face after she pulled away, “I think your right about that one”. She ran her hand over Sara’s cheek like she had done to hers, making sure that she was just as happy.

They rose from the bed and got into their off duty clothes. Sara in her blue and white V-neck shirt, loose grey and camo combat shorts and a black hoodie. Suvi in a pair a skinny jeans and a loose fitting white T-shirt.

Sara took Suvi by the hand and tugged her towards the door, “where are we going then”, Suvi joked as she was pulled through the door. “we’re having dinner”. She said back, amid laughing at Suvi’s face as she realised when wasn’t dressed for it.

In the cargo bay, Cora and Lexi were stood side by side waiting for the doors to slide open so that they could get on with business, they had until later that night to get what they needed and get back on the ship.

“what are you guys getting up while we are here?”. Sara tried to raise her voice so that they could hear what she was saying. They turned their heads in unison and followed her down the lift and over to where they were standing.

Lexi was the first to speak up between the two of them, “’m heading to catch up with Harry and the other doctors in the medbay, and then do a supply run for some things. I don’t know about Cora”.

“I’m just heading for a few drinks and picking up some things before we get back out, what about you two?”.

Sara looked back to Suvi with a growing smile, “I’m taking her out for dinner before I don’t get the chance”.

“Aww” was the simultaneous reply, causing Suvi to start blushing a shade of pink and Sara to chuckle at her for It.

\---

“I wish we could be more public with our relationship off ship you know”, she mumbled over the comfortable silence that they had fallen into.

“I know Sara but if we do then things are gonna start getting out of the control and you know it”, she did know that is what she wanted, but for both of their sakes they were going to have to keep it low to avoid anyone saying something about them that they shouldn’t do.

The sun was setting over the Nexus well, the artificial one was anyways, signalling the end to their night, they would be on the ship again within the hour to turn in for the night, getting back to work the next day.

Sara stood from her chair and turned to where Suvi was sat, “you ready?”, she was tired and ready for bed at this point.

“yeah, I guess I am”, she wasn’t ready, she wanted to stay there for longer, but she knew she couldn’t.

Sara could feel the hesitation, she had gotten good at that the more they spoke and soon the subtlety became rather obvious, “hey, what’s up?”.

“I guess I just want to stay here a little longer – “.

“shh, c’mon, lets go back to the ship and have something nice to drink, spend the night curled up on the couch, nice and warm”, she put on her smooth, mellow voice that she knew Suvi loved so much.

That voice, she always loved that voice, it was calming and caring. Not like her most of the time, normally it was strong and stern, not with her. She couldn’t help but melt at the sound.

She dropped the act and allowed herself to pull herself from her chair and walk back towards the docks.

\---

Sara and Suvi were wrapped up in a blanket on the couch watching a silly video on her omni-tool when a knock came at the door, like always she waved her hand over to the door and watched as it opened.

Cora walked in looking over to the bed, a confused look appeared on her face before she turned her head over to the couch, “sorry”.

“its alright, what do you need?”

“I was just, letting you know that the last of the crew is back on the ship, and that we are waiting on your word for where we need to go”, she seemed dense, and Sara didn’t know why but she was going to ask anyways.

“you alright Cora?”, she was curious but she knew not to push it if she didn’t want to tell her.

“yeah, just feels a bit awkward walking in on you two”.

Sara began to chuckled while Suvi, being shy as she ever was started to blush. “Don’t be absurd”. She unravelled herself from the blanket and wrapped up Suvi with the bit that she had been under. Turning back and smiling at her, she winked before turning back to Cora stood in the doorway, “set course for the Aya, I need to talk with Evfra and the Moshea, leave in about an hour”.

Cora simple nodded before turning to leave the room. Sara turned back to the rolled up Suvi on the couch, “I’m going to talk with everyone before we go, wanna come?”. Suvi’s face went blank for a second before a smile grew on her face and her head nodded in response.

One by one they went through the crew and spoke about what they did for the past 2 weeks and learned some interesting things as they went.

\---

Finally the pair retreated back to their quarters for the piece, Sara hadn’t done anything this tiring for the past 2 weeks and now she was shattered.

She fell into the bed and pulled the covers over her now cold body, she gestured to Suvi to get into the bed next to her, she happily obliged. She rested her head onto Suvi’s chest with her head turned up to face hers.

“I guess it’s time to get back to work isn’t it?”.

Before she spoke, a sigh escaped Suvi’s lips, “yeah, it is, good night”. She lent forward and planted a kiss on her forehead before dropping her head back onto the pillow and drifting off to sleep. 


	28. Kadara port

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the team get to Kadara port and Sara feels off about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kind of a pointless chapter, i needed a way to introduce the planet but i am bad at plot so here ya go.

Stepping out from the resistance base, Sara was still in conflict by what had transpired between her, the Moshea and Evfra, he had told her that the person who had turned in the Moshea was one of them and that he had been tracked to Kadara. She didn’t have a plan but she was hoping that one off her crew had something to offer, she would have to wait and see.

She pulled herself up to meeting room and called the rest of the crew into the room, she couldn’t help herself from smiling at what she saw, everyone looked so refreshed and ready to get things done. A little more than her but that wasn’t a bad thing.

She recounted what she had heard from the other two while thinking her thoughts out loud to everyone else. Other than what she already knew, they didn’t have much else to offer to her plan, she didn’t expect them too but that didn’t mean they didn’t have a plan at all.

“Sam, put in the coordinates for Kadara and Kallo get back to the bridge and set off when you are ready. Everyone else, we’ll figure it out when we get there”. Everyone dispersed leaving Sara at the table, dreading having to go anywhere near Kadara, it was going to be more dangerous than anything yet.

\---

As Sara entered the cargo bay, she walked into a sight that she didn’t like to see, Suvi pacing back and forth by the door. She knew that every time she did this, something was wrong, and she didn’t like seeing her like this.

“whoa Suvi, stop pacing and talk to me”, she grabbed one of her arms and used it to turn her round so that they were facing. Without a word, Suvi pulled her in to a tight embrace and rested her head on Sara’s shoulder.

“I’m just worried that’s all”. She could hear in her voice that actually was worried, making her melt there and then.

“I’ll be alright, don’t worry”, she did her best to hide that fact that she too was worried about what could happen while they were there, it was full of exiles and others of that kind, the kind that were more unpredictable than a normal enemy.

To her relief it seemed to have worked, the tension was leaving Suvi’s arms as she planted a kiss on her lips.

“I need to go now, I’ll be back soon”, she reluctantly pulled herself from Suvi’s arms and began the trudge towards the door, only stopping to turn and flash her a smile as she went.

The first thing they saw off the ship was not a welcoming sight, a Kett skull upon a spike, with a sign flashing out its warning, for those who are willing to enter the port. The atmosphere on the inside wasn’t any better: drunks, guards and the distinct stench of death everywhere she went, this was not going to pleasant. She needed to find her contact, and the only way to do that was to find the bar that would need to be meet him at. “Not too hard”, she thought to herself.

\---

On the ship, things were quiet, most of the crew and headed off to look around the port or have a drink or two, leaving Suvi with her thoughts on the bridge. She was trying to focus on the work that she had to do but she couldn’t think of anything but Sara and the fact that she might be in danger.

Half of the day had passed without any kind of check in or communication and she was worried about Sara, she was about to call her omni-tool, but her own lit up before she had the chance, looking down at it she could see that Sara had already beat her to it.

“Hey Suvi, just checking in”.

“hey Sara, what’s up”, a second passed before anything came back through.

“we spoke with the contact and then with the captive but were going to have to go outside of the mountain to get something so, letting you know”. She was short of words, she didn’t want her to go out there but she couldn’t exactly tell her no, all she could say was, “alright, stay safe, please”.

A moment passed without a word, her omni-tool broke the silence. It was an email, she opened it and began to tear up as she read.

_Subject: don’t worry_

_To Suvi Anwar_

_From: Sara Ryder_

_Think about something else, don’t worry about me, I’ll come back If you are there. I’d tell you this over the comms but you know the others don’t appreciate it. :)_

_XX_

_S. Ryder_

She regained her composure and tried to think of something to take her mind off things, Science was going to be the only answer. She shook her wrist and waited for omni-tool to come up before haling Sara once again.

“Sara, you there?”, pausing mid-sentence to think about what she was going to say.

“yeah, I’m here, what’s up?”. Behind the voice was the soft humming of the Nomad, so she got some relief out of that at least.

“Can you take some scans of some of the flora and send them to me so I take a look at it please?”, again a pause followed before she came back through, “Sure thing, you’ll know when you get them”.

\---

Suvi was drifting off in her chair when she was brought back into reality with the buzzing of her omni-tool on her arm, another email, and she had an idea who it was.

_Subject: scans_

_To: Suvi Anwar_

_From: Sara Ryder_

_Here are the scans that you wanted._

_XX_

_Attached to this email are a number of scans of the local flora and fauna._

_S. Ryder_

Now she could get something done instead of sitting there and worrying about it all day, to Sara’s credit she had actually got some good readings, something she could work with in the moment.

\---

She was so engrossed in her work that she hadn’t even noticed that Sara and the others had returned to the ship, before long she was startled by a pair of cold hands planted on her cheeks from behind, along with the calming tone of Sara’s giggling in her ears.

She flew from her chair and wrapped herself in Sara’s arms, she didn’t normally miss her this much but after having two weeks alone with her it was getting to her now. “I missed you so much…”.

Sara was still chuckling, “I can tell, I’m going for something to eat, feel free to join me”. She pulled Suvi from her entanglement and left a quick meaningful kiss on her cheek before she left. Suvi not far behind.

As they both entered the galley what they saw was something they weren’t expecting to see, Drack was stood over the hob and the oven with something in some pans and something in the oven as well, they looked on impressed at how effortless he made it all look.

By now she was starving and in need of something to eat so she needed to break the silence, “I hope I get some of whatever that is”. Drack simply looked over and chuckled to himself, “that’s how I was hoping it would go, everyone could use something proper so I brought some things on with me for something good.

Sara moved over and sat down on the bench and moved along so that there was room for Suvi to sit next to it. “What are ya making?”, it was Suvi’s turn to ask questions.

“well I found a nice fruit back on Aya that I don’t think I’d ever heard of so I’m putting it in a pie, kinda doing it by eye if you know what I mean”.

“it can’t be that bad…can it?”.

\---

Actually, it had turned out to be pretty good and soon the three of them filled and ready for rest. Now ready for alone time or time with Suvi, she nudged Suvi’s arms and gestured for her to move up so that she could get up.

“where would you happen to be going right about now?”, her accent was showing through now she wasn’t trying to control it.

“just back to the quarters, I’m tired and would like some peace”, as she stood she looked down to the redhead still planted on the bench and dropped a light kiss on the forehead, then she turned and left.

About half an hour later and a cup of tea or two, Suvi herself was ready for a bit of peace, she thanked Drack for the pie and made her way back to her quarters to find what Sara had gotten up to.

As she made her way through the doors she was welcomed by a comfy looking Sara in the bed with a datapad. “someone’s comfortable I see”, Sara lifted her head from what she was reading and smiled, happy to see her.

Suvi climbed into bed and rested her head on Sara’s shoulder, “I guess that’s the first day done then”.

“yep, and many more to go if we want some kind of settlement here”, her voice was harsher than normal, not going unnoticed by the other in the bed, “hey, what’s up?”.

Sara pause for a second to figure out how she wanted to handle it, she didn’t wasn’t to be harsh but after a long day she was tired and found it hard to stay level headed.

“I’m sorry, I’m just tired and stressed from Kadara, this place is a death trap. I might turn in for the night right now actually.”, with that she turned and placed a long, full kiss on her girlfriends lips and moved herself down in the bed so that she could lie down.

In the process Suvi’s head which was on Sara’s shoulder made its way down to her chest and was now sitting atop her right breast, she could feel her breathing slowly make its ways into a paced rhythm, then she knew she was sleeping.

 

 

 


	29. triggere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara gets her hands on the transponder and a Roekaar hideout doesn't go to plan.

 Gill was tapping away at his keyboard when he was startled from his focus by the hissing of the doors opening, as he turned he saw the vague outline of Sara, but her face was covered by a large black box.

“hey Ryder, what you got there?”, she grunted as she dropped the box onto the table next to him, and after rubbing her arms a little, “this is the transponder that is going to lead us to the archons ship, I need you to repair it so that we can get it to work, think you can manage?”.

“Do you think you can manage, think of who you’re talking to”, his words broken up between his feigned laughing. He picked it off the table and rotated it around in his hands. After a moment he went into a flurry of hammering and tinkering and sound.

He planted the transponder down with a thump next to Sara and tapped it once more with a hammer, then a distinct sound began to blur from the device, static, but soon it was more than static. It was the sound of a Kett voice.

“SHIT TURN IT OFF”, she was slowly getting more panicked the more time the device was on but after Gil fumbled with it and depressed a button on the side, the sound stopped and a collective sigh of relief was released in the room.

“Well what now, not like we can do anything with it”, a hint of disappointment mixed with slight irritation.

Before Gill could even counter, Sam’s monotone voice rang through the room, “actually pathfinder, in the time that it took for Gill to turn of the transponder, I managed to attain the location of the Kett flagship”.

The atmosphere in the room changed from tense to relief and Gill could see the changes in Sara’s face. Luckily for him he wouldn’t have to deal with an angry Sara, nobody likes Sara when she’s angry.

After the fleeting moment had passed, she again raised her voice, “Good, now lock it somewhere safe so that nobody can touch it, and don’t turn it back on”, finishing the sentence on her way out of the door.

She wasn’t far from the bridge when she received a notice from Sam, “pathfinder, you have an email waiting from Reyes Vidal at your terminal”. She couldn’t even manage a grunt at this, so far he’d had her running around like a headless chicken doing this that and the other but at least he wasn’t Sloane Kelly.

She reached her terminal and brought up the email, it was about a murder than he wanted her to look into, she was less than pleased but at least getting to the bottom of it might make the place more viable.

Before she left she dropped in to Suvi on the bridge to check in, “hey, how’s it going”, she knelt by the chair and waited for her to turn to face her.

“Oh hey Sara what you up to, you not hangin around?”, a hint of disappointment was hanging in her voice in the realization that she was going to be gone again soon.

“yeah, I have a murder that I need to look into but I wanted to check in on ya”. She dropped a kiss onto her forehead and turned back to leave the bridge, “wait!”, as she turned back to where Suvi was sat, she expected to see her looking this way or to have gotten up and walked over but she hadn’t, but she heard a faint, “stay safe” coming from around the chair.

\--

The humid air of Kadara was starting to get on Sara’s nerves, she couldn’t even walk without ending up in a puddle of sweat and considering how much walking she actually needed to do, it was getting old fast.

“Why does it have to be like this”, her voice strained from the effort she was putting in to get herself up the hill.

From behind her she could hear PeeBee remark, “It doesn’t, but you’re the one that’s trying to solve this murder case”, from the tone, Sara could tell that she while she was being sarcastic there was no shortage of actual irritation.

“Just trying to make it safe enough for an outpost you want Tann to be off our backs, don’t you?”, she was going to argue this all day if she needed to, she wasn’t irritated but it had been too long without some fun back and forth with her crew.

“I guess I can’t argue with that one”.

As they got to the top of the hill and around the corner, what looked like an initiative building came into view, “ok, you two stay out here and stand guard, I’ll look for the evidence”.

As she approached the door she felt something squishing beneath her boots, she looked down so see a trail of blood leading into the building. She kept her head down and continued to walk through the door.

The inside was the most obvious murder scene that she had ever seen. Blood puddled around the body of a dead Krogan in the center of the room, footprints leading too and from the body, nothing else looking out of place and apparent lack of a struggle.

She finished gathering her scans and left the building, as she was about to make her way back down the steps, something glistened in her visor, over to her right on top of a crate.

It was obvious now that she had seen it, it had been dropped on the way out by whoever was to blame for the murder. There was something weird about it though, she had never seen that kind of blade before, she was gambling on one of the squad having an idea.

She turned to the pair that were at the bottom of the steps and held up the knife, “Either of you seen this kind of blade before?”.

PeeBee clearly hadn’t by the confused look in her eyes but Jaal had added something, “it looks Angaran to me, but I doubt this was perpetrated by one of us normal Angarans. I guess that it was the Roekaar who did this”.

Before she answer him back her omni-tool lit up and a distinct voice began to sound, Reyes, “there is a Roekaar camp over in the mountains that we know of, so that might be where they are”.

“alright Reyes we’ll go there now, come on guys lets do this poor Krogan some justice”.

\---

The mountain was covered in outlaw camps and wildlife but eventually after playing dodge-ball with bullets, they pulled up to the entrance of the Camp, though it didn’t look like one from the outside. It was built into the mountain.

As they approached, the doors slid open to expose an empty corridor, dimly lit by one overhanging light.

“everybody ready for this?”, she turned around to the pair and waited for their nods of agreement. Jaal first, PeeBee second.

The doors opened to the cave where at first nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until Sara noticed the female Angara stood a little out from the bottom of the steps that they were on, surrounded by other Roekaar.

Knowing they were outnumbered, she lowered her rifle and put her hands up, moving closer to the woman until they were face to face.

She was the first to speak, “you know what happens next”, Sara didn’t like getting threatened, but she also didn’t like getting into a fair fight, fair fights are for idiots.

“yeah, I got an idea”, throwing her hands out she caused a blast of biotics, knocking everyone in the area to their knees. Then, one by one she took them out with her rifle. Leaving only her, her team and the one Angara, or so she thought.

On the other end of the cave a glint of a scope gave away the sniper that was hidden behind a rock, before she could hit the deck, the bolt skimmed her right arm and burned the skin, leaving a track on the outside of her arm.

She rolled over to a nearby rock and looked up to PeeBee and Jaal and snapped, “make sure that woman doesn’t go anywhere, and take out that sniper!”. Wriggling with her left arm she pulled the medi-gel out from her right pocket and applied it to the wound while trying to withstand the urge to writhe under the pain.

While she tended to her wound, the cave was lit with the flash of gunfire and the walls echoed with the bangs of ignited gunpowder, a minute maybe more had passed before the chaos even began to die down, the sniper on the other end of the cave was causing more problems that it really should have done, the only reason the gunfight ended is because Jaal used his ability to teleport a short distance and stab the rifleman in the back.

PeeBee returned to where Sara was lying against the rock and held out her hand, “lets get you up again”, she reached out her hand to meet it and with the combined effort she was pulled back onto her feet.

Jaal had moved back over and picked up the Roekaar leader and held her still, Sara approached her and held her gun out in front of her, “Jaal I’m sorry I have to do this”. At first, he just let out a grunt, but a second later he muttered his reply.

“It has to be done, they deserve it”, he stepped away and waited for Sara. She pulled the trigged and the flash that followed marled the end of the threat and the end to the murders of milky way species on Kadara. But at a cost.

\---

The trip back to the Tempest was uneventful at best, beyond PeeBee pestering her about the scar, nothing happened. That was until Sam found another memory trigger.

“ _Pathfinder, I have found another memory trigger just off the path on your left behind that rock”_ , a memory trigger? She hadn’t found one for a while, she had also continually put off telling anyone about it for a long time, what could she say, how could she explain it. Shed had to tell someone eventually.

She pulled over the Nomad and hopped out, PeeBee watched curiously as she disappeared behind a large rock nearby.

Trudging into the medbay was less than pleasant, she walked in to see Lexi sat at her desk looking directly with her burning eyes as she did when she was mad, “why didn’t you say anything?”.

“I had other things I needed to take care off in the moment, then after the medi gel the pain stopped so I kind of forgot about it, sorry”, she sat on the end of the bed and looked towards the door, away from Lexi. Partly because she didn’t feel like she could look at her and partly because she wanted it to be over with.

“Sam can you call down Suvi for me?”.

“Yes pathfinder”.

A minute passed before the redhead appeared from behind the doors, to see such a horror, “Oh my god! Are you alright?”, her pitch was raised as she rushed over to where Sara was sat in the bed.

The first thing Sara could do was chuckle, “yeah I’m alright down worry”.

Suvi maneuvered around her to inspect the wound as Lexi was working on it, “are ya sure about that one?”, turning head to face Sara’s.

“I’m sure, I am ok”.

\---

She flopped into the bed with a thump and a sigh of relief, it had been a long day. She might have been fixed up and cleared, but that doesn’t mean that she didn’t have a trench in her arm but she also had to tell Lexi and Suvi about her memory triggers.

“Sam, can you call Lexi and Suvi in her for me?”, she sat up and prepared herself for what she was going to have to do.

The first was Lexi, she only had to walk from the medbay to get here, “everything alright Sara?”,

“yeah, just take a seat a second”.

A moment later Suvi tilted her head around the door with a curious look on her face, “hey, what’s up?".

“come in Suvi, sit down”.

When the two had sat themselves on the end of the bed, she began her explanation, “there is something that I need to tell you both”, she cleared her throat, “after my dad died, I have been finding memory triggers that have been unlocking memories that he left locked within Sam node. I’ve seen some things over the time”.

Suvi didn’t say anything but the look on Lexi’s face changed from confused to curious, “what kind of things did you see Sara?”.

As Sara began to respond, her voice went from room volume to a whisper in her struggle, “I saw him working on Sam, I saw him found out about my mom’s illness and I saw him say goodbye as well”.

“oh Sara I’m sorry you had to see those things, are you alright”.

“yeah, thanks Suvi, I’m alright. That’s it really, I needed to tell you about the triggers in case I found something really out there, so you can both get back to work now if you want to, or you can take the rest of the day off if you want to”.

\---

As Lexi and Suvi got back off the bed she lied back down and closed her eyes, her arm was still a little sore from the bullet shot and the hole in the side of her arm wasn’t going to be back anytime soon either. Slowly she drifted off into a low sleep, still awake from some of the adrenaline of the day.

A few hours later she was awoken to the feeling of someone climbing into the bed with her, she didn’t need to ask, so she wrapped her arm over the warm body and drifted back into a deep sleep for the night.


	30. days of future past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In her fathers memories, Sara finds something with an unimaginable impact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know that this chapter kind of goes from one thing to another but this isn't something I am good at.
> 
> thanks for reading anyways.
> 
> :)

The entrance of the cave was in the middle of nowhere, in the mountains to the south of Kadara. She had been contacted by Sloane about some kind of standoff between her and the charlatan of the collective. Winner takes control Kadara an Sloane wasn’t one to stand down for something like this.

When Sara arrived she was already at the entrance and her greeting was less than friendly, “took your time didn’t you”.

“it’s not my fault this is in the middle of nowhere. Let’s go”.

When they got into the main part of the cave it appeared empty, that was until a headless voice came from behind them. Acting on impulse, Sara spun on her heals to see who it was and if they were a threat.

“Reyes?”, all the pieces were fitting together now, the more she thought about it the more it made sense. He was never around when the collective was out and about and he always seemed to have a lot to say about the going ons in the area.

“yes, yes I am. I am the charlatan. Now Sloane, we need to settle this once and for all, one on one fair duel, winner gets the port, deal?”.

“you know I can’t say on to that, lets get on with it then, no more wasting time”.

Sara stepped out of the way and watched as the pair danced a deathly waltz in a circle, back and forth, back and forth.

“Pathfinder, there is a sniper in the back of the cave, their sights are trained on Sloane”, now she had a choice, she could either tackle her down and stop her from taking the shot, or she could leave it and let her be shot.

She didn’t like Sloane, she had no respect for anyone, a piece of work is what her grandfather would have called her, she knew what she was going to do.

The shot rang through the cave as Sloane now stood with her hand over her heart, she fell to her knees while Reyes raised his left hand and made them into a finger gun and saying, “Bang”.

He turned his attention now to Sara who was sat on a rock on the other side of where the duel had taken place, “so, now what”, raising her voice so that he could hear her.

“now, you can set up your outpost and I can do extra security to keep it safe. Deal?”.

“guess you have yourself a deal Vidal”. She got up from the rock and began the slow walk out of the cave and back to the Nomad.

\---

The drive to the scoped out outpost site was eventful, the radio was alive with chatter and the sound of keyboards clicking under the finger. This kind of thing has its challenges, this outpost was going to be military. The ones on Eos and Veold were all about the science and the technology but on a planet like Kadara this wasn’t going to be an option. It was going to be a change.

Before she knew it, her ears were filled with the roar of buildings entering the atmosphere, the outside burning in heat of the air.

“well then, looks like we finally have something worth it on this planet, just have to try and keep it safe now”. She shook her arm to wake up her omni-tool and brought it up to her head, “Kallo, set the course for the Nexus and then take off as soon as I get back”.

She still needed to meet with the mayor of the outpost and think a few things through with how the whole thing was going to be run, “but that won’ take too long, should it?”.

\---

She stepped off the ramp and onto the docks, she was looking forward to seeing what memory Sam had in store, she didn’t always like seeing the memories but she did know that it was better that she know about them than to not know.

She was apprehensive at best, some of things she had seen had been hard for her to handle, seeing her mother being the most difficult to bear.

Getting to Sam Node took longer than it really should have done, everywhere she went she was stopped by at least one person asking about Kadara and what happened, she didn’t have the time to stop and talk, by the time she got to Sam Node she had been stopped around 10 times and she knew that it was going to happen again on the way back out.

“Sam, what have you got for me this time?”, hesitation in her voice, she didn’t know what she was to expect.

“this memory took place right before the Hyperion departed from the Milky Way”.

_The memory plays and things get uncovered, it starts out with Alec Ryder in his office with a laptop and the early edition of the Sam Node. He is talking with his contacts before he turns to Sam, “make sure her pod is on the Hyperion, don’t use her real name”._

“don’t use her real name?”, “she’s on the Hyperion!?”, “Sam, I’ll talk with you later I have to go”. She turned on her heals and took off towards the Medbay, she had to tell Scott about this, he needed to know.

She entered the Medbay and beelined it for Dr Carlisle, “Harry, I need you to open a communication with Scott for me”.

He looked at her with slight confusion and concern, “are you sure it’s important enough for this, you know he needs his rest”.

“Yes, I’m certain”, she turned away from him and sat down on the end of the bed, looking up to Scott’s face.

“Sara, Sara is that you? What’s up?”

“Scott, I, um, have something that I need to tell you. I have been unlocking dad’s memories as I have been going through this whole thing. I just found something that is going to have some big implications. Scott, mom is alive, and she is on the Hyperion”.

He didn’t say anything for at least a minute and it was starting to worry her, “Scott?”.

Another moment passed before he spoke up, “you mean she’s here on the ship with us, right now?”, there was conflict in his voice, she could tell that he didn’t know what to think about the whole thing.

“yeah, she is here with us, but she’s in stasis and we can’t wake her up yet. We still need to cure her disease”.

“I’m sorry Scott, but I have to go now, there are things I need to do”.

“Bye Sara”.

\---

On the way back to the Tempest, she only got worse and worse. The more she thought about it the more she got upset. She had made her peace with it and she had said her final goodbye, now it might not be the last one.

She jumped back onto the ramp and headed straight for her room, she looked it behind her before curling into a ball on her bed with tears welling in her eyes, ready to fall at a moments notice.

“Sam, where’s Suvi?”.

“Suvi is currently on the bridge with Kallo, I have already called her down for you”.

She let out a long sigh, trying to gain her composure, “thanks Sam”.

A moment later the doors hissed open and the soothing voice of the redhead came floating into the room, “Sara, are you alright Babe?”.

“I don’t know Suvi, can you sit and listen for a minute for me?”, she wasn’t looking in Suvi’s direction but she could hear her feet on the floor and the feeling of something dropping onto the bed.

“I’ve just seen one of my dads last memories, he put my mom into stasis and put her on the Hyperion, she’s in a cry pod right now, alive”. The tears were now flowing freely and she began to sob loudly.

Suvi broke Sara from her ball and wrapped her up in her arms, “oh Sara it’s alright, you’ll figure something out soon enough”. With one hand, she massaged her back slowly in a circular pattern and with the other she stroked her hair up and down while she attempted to calm her down.

\---

It had been a few hours since the incident with Sara and Suvi had briefly retreated to her old bunk with the others so that she could get some things done without getting disturbed.

While she was comforting Sara on her bed, she had a realisation, with all of the new technology and plants they have found there has to be something that can help her to find some kind of cure for the disease. If there is one thing that she can do that is going to make her feel better, it is going to be finding this cure.

While she was sat there thinking away to herself, she was dragged out of her thought by a familiar voice. “Suvi? What are you doing back in here? You and Sara haven’t fallen out have you?”. She looked to her side to see Cora’s face looking over at her.

“Of course not, I have something planned that I needed to make sure that she wasn’t going to find out about”, she went back to typing away at her datapad waiting for whatever Cora was going to say next.

“And what might that be?”, she was undoing the laces on her boots but as she asked she lifted her head so that it was back looking at Suvi.

“I can’t tell you that now can I, that would ruin it”, she put on a playful grin to show she was all good hearted.

“Guess I can’t argue with that one”, she grabbed her nightwear and headed of for the shower, leaving Suvi with her thoughts.

She typed away at her omni-tool sending email after email to her colleagues in the science department and the Angaran contacts to see if anyone could lend her a hand. lo and behold three came back, the first being doctor Aridana of the science department speaking on the behalf of the others and the second was a contact on Havarl that thinks she might have something on the local plants that might help, and the final one being Lexi T’Perro herself.

She knew this was going to be tough if she wanted to keep it a secret but she also knew that in the end it would all be so worth it.

 

 

 

 


	31. making a dent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suvi's project advances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #filler

Suvi had been working on her special project for the last two weeks, she had gotten on well so far with Sara not really suspecting anything as she was in the field a lot, this left Suvi with plenty of time to get things done. So far, they had been to Havarl and gotten the plant that was mentioned in the email, it was in a crate with a load of others that were going to the Nexus for study so she didn’t have any trouble getting her hands on it, it also served for great cover and for Sara to not catch on.   
She didn’t like keeping it a secret, but she knew that if Sara knew that she wouldn’t leave it be. She didn’t want to get her hopes up and she knew that it might not work so she didn’t want to fill her with false hope either.   
Today was like all the others, they were on Kadara doing some work for the outpost, Sara was out of the ship with PeeBee and Jaal helping with some of the still volatile wildlife. Suvi was in her chair on the deck when Sam came through on her comms, “Suvi, your tests have been completed”.   
She stood up from her chair and made her way to the chem lab, she was running gene tests on how the plant reacted with the Cells of the human body, before she could see about the healing properties, she wanted to make sure that they didn’t do any damage first. From what she could see, it didn’t appear that they really had a negative effect on the cells, opening up the possibilities of what she could do with it.   
Delicately she set up her next test, to see if used in the right way, would it kill the infected Cells. Of course she didn’t have any cells with AEND but she did have access to cells with something extremely similar, meaning the results would be close to what would really happen.   
She left the lab and headed for the medbay, she wanted to update Lexi on the results, she could have done it through her omni-tool but she found that extended discussion was easier in person.   
She stepped through the doors of the medbay looking for Lexi, scanning around the room she didn’t see anyone and there wasn’t anyone on the bed so she turned and left. It would have to wait until later.   
Stepping into the research room on the way back to the bridge, she could feel the gaze detection go off in her brain, she knew someone was looking at her but she didn’t know where. She stopped in her tracks and scanned around the room, she didn’t see anyone but it still felt like someone was staring. But then, out of the top of her peripheral vision, she caught something dangling from the rail of the comm room. She lifted her head to see Sara looking down at her with a smile on her face.   
“And what would you be doing up there then”.   
Sara’s grin didn’t shift when she spoke, “just waiting on Lexi for my after mission check, she’s in the cargo bay right now, and what where you doing in the chem lab?”.   
“Oh, I, um, nothing really, just running tests on some flora”, had she been caught in the act? If she had her excuse wasn’t exactly wrong. She was expecting Sara to pry at her for information like she normally did, but she didn’t.   
“Ok”.   
That set off an alarm in Suvi’s brain, maybe she had been caught in the act, maybe Sara was mad that she been lied to, or maybe she already knew what she was doing and just trying to pry a little.   
“Cool, I need to get back to work, bye babe”, she took off on her heals towards the bridge, trying to get away from the awkwardness as quickly as possible.  
\---  
The following week, things were going just as well, all of her tests had come back positive and she was getting more and more certain that there might be something to it.   
Now there was nothing she could do only send it to Dr Aridana and hope that she can get something out of it, she told herself that if nothing came of that then she would have another go before giving up on it. No, she promised herself that she would try again, she also silently promised Sara she would.


	32. Spender

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Drack to looking for evidence.

“Ryder, we need to talk”, Drack’s low grumble came from around the door. Sara was sat at her desk reading some emails from the scientists on Havarl. She turned her chair around to face him.

“sure thing, what’s up?”

“I think I have found a way we can get the evidence we need on spender”, the tone in his voice picked up, this was important to him and it got him energetic.

Sara, sensing this wasn’t one to hold him back, “I’m listening”. She gestured over the couch for him to sit down.

“well, after you reviewed the security footage on the Nexus, I’ve had Sam looking out for anything suspicious. He just came back with a nav point on Kadara. It’s out of the way in the corner, probably full of exiles and people of the like, but that means that spender is probably involved too. I think we should go and check it out”.

It wasn’t a bad idea, and she had already been all the way around the outside of Kadara so she had probably even seen the place anyway. They weren’t waiting on anything right now so there was nothing stopping them.

She lifted her arm to chest height and began to speak into it, “Kallo, you there?”, she didn’t have to wait long for him to come back, “Ryder?”.

“take us to Kadara, we have some business to attend to”, “right away”.

\---

There was still no large landing pad at the outpost so they still had to land in the port and go down to lift to get out of the mountain. The atmosphere on Kadara was different now, there was less fear about the people and things looked like they were picking up.

The trip to the location was uneventful, since they got rid of the Kett and they had the Collective on their side, it was unlikely that they were going to be stopped. They pulled up to an open space, surrounded by sharp hills and scattered rocks, well defended. In the corner was a small building on stilts that stood high from the ground. Stairs lead to the top wrapping around the legs around the outside.

First out of the Nomad was Sara, as always, to take point and make sure there wasn’t a threat. Then it was PeeBee, always being the one to want to get out and go somewhere. And there was drack, age taking a bit of a toll on him.

“well, this is it, let’s do this and get out”.

As they neared closer to the structure in the corner, Sara caught a rock with one of her feet. It skimmed along the dirt for a few meters before coming to rest atop a small mound, a loud beeping began to emanate from beneath it.

“pathfinder, landmines”, Sara didn’t know that AI were capable of urgency, but she swore there was something about his voice that she hadn’t heard before.

“STOP!”, she put her arms out to make sure that neither took one step further. “Sam, will they show up on my scanner?”.

“Yes pathfinder”.

“alright you two, get in a line behind me and follow my steps”, they navigated their way through the minefield until they got closer to the building where they had stopped placing the mines. Now safe from the mines, and the outlaws in sight they began to clear them out.

She opened up with her favored Black Widow sniper, taking the head off one of the raiders before making her way towards the stairs. PeeBee and Drack fell in behind her as they went, Sara and PeeBee used their biotic cloaks to stay out of sight while Drack simply pushed up either way. He was a Krogan after all.

Clearing the raiders from the camp wasn’t exactly difficult, it turns out that two powerful biotics and a battle hardened Krogan can make short work of things.

“alright, let’s look around for anything we can use. Drack, because this is your thing you can help me look, PeeBee you stay outside and watch for any reinforcements”. The inside was almost empty, there was some tables and beds but not much else of anything else.

Drack started with some crates that were stacked on top of each other in the corner while Sara read through all of the datapads that were scattered around on the desks. Most of them had a lot of useless information about smuggling so when she got to the last one, she didn’t have high hopes. But when she began to read, she was pleasantly surprised to find Spenders name right on it.

_Paper trail_

_To: William Spender_

_From: Undisclosed Recipient_

_Spender,_

_We received your supplies, but I’m not sure how you expect us to keep pressure on the Krogan. It’s half of what you promised. Maybe we can throw rations at them?_

_I’m starting to think that trusting you was a bad idea. Have you even used that scrambler I gave you? I bet it’s just lying in your quarters or something._

_You’ve got the title. That means power. Use it,_

_Aroane_

“Drack, come and look at this”, while waving her hand for him to come over. She handed him the datapad and watched as the anger grew in his eyes, burning like an oil fire.

“That bastard!”, he didn’t shout, he didn’t need to, his voice portrayed his anger well enough. “He worked with Spender during the rebellion, I should have known that he was involved. We’d better keep looking for anything else”.

“Right. I’m going to look upstairs”. As she stepped through the doors, the room was suspiciously empty. At the end was a large window with a desk and a terminal sat on top. Apprehensively she walked up to it, expecting something to happen but it didn’t. the terminal was on and had something written it. Shipments, contents and the people involved.

“better keep a copy of that for evidence. Sam, copy this and then purge the terminal”.

“Yes pathfinder”, the screen began to glitch and she could see everything disappearing from the screen, she was waiting for confirmation from Sam that it had been deleted, as the last of the data was purged, the screen began to glitch before the monitor went of completely.

“pathfinder, this terminal also allowed access to the mines so I disabled them while I had the chance”, she had forgotten the mines after the push so it took her by surprised but brought with it a sense of relief.

They had everything they needed and so need to still be there, she brought up her omni-tool and called everyone back to the Nomad.

\---

Now that they had solid evidence and even more intel on his doings, she needed a look around his apartment. Right after they left Kadara, they headed right back to the Nexus so she could get to it, they could do with some supplies while they were there so it wasn’t like it was the only reason.

as she stepped off the ship and onto the landing pad, she was thankful for how close the apartments were from the dock, only a minute or so walk from where she was. Up the steps and along the balcony, not many people ever went there so It quiet too. Even better, Spenders apartment was all the way at the end.

She approached the door and took out her omni-tool, she would have to get through the locks of the door if she wanted to get in. she looked down the corridor to check for anyone, when the coast was clear she began. “Sam? Is there anyone currently in the room right now?”.

“Negative pathfinder, the room is currently empty, and Spender is not in the area”.

It took considerably longer than she had anticipated that it would, she had gotten through something more secure than this in shorter time before. She didn’t know what made this so special.

When the doors opened, it was clear that he was involved with something shady, there was a container of stolen supplies in the corner along with multiple voice recordings around the room, each of them with harsh comments of other people on them.

“alright Sam let’s see if we can’t find that scrambler in here anywhere”, bringing her scanner back up again she went from left to right, left to right as she moved further through the room. Around halfway through her scanner pinged when it had reached the TV. She knew it was the scanner, it could have been the only thing that he could have stored back there.

She reached around the back and pulled out the device, it was shaped like some kind of medicinal tablet but one side was packed with different buttons, “alright, we have what we need, lets get this to the communications specialist”.

On her way out of the room something on top of a set of shelves caught her eye, on closer inspection it turned out to be a ship model that too had been reported stolen months ago. She picked the box up off the top and headed for the door, hoping Sam wouldn’t say anything she would have to explain.

“Drack, I have the scrambler, we’ll get him yet”.

“thanks Ryder, this means a lot to the Krogan”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	33. Roses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cora has something she needs to share with Sara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know that the feedback on this site is pretty bad and i know its more likely that more of you have Tumblr accounts so if you do want to send feedback and want updates then follow me at "the-inconsequencial"

Sara was awoken by the feeling of rumbling and rocking beneath her, at first, she was disorientated and confused but as the distinct hue of the bright Eos sun rise broke through the windows of her quarters, the memory of the night before began to seep back in. she had been asked by leadership to look into some hostiles around the Camp, they said they wouldn’t have asked her if the others could handle it but she didn’t believe  them for one second.

As she lay in the bed, slowly waking up, she extended one of her arms to find Suvi, but it was empty. Her side of the bed was cold so she already been out for at least half an hour, “and where have you gotten to then?”, there was nobody there to answer her so she got quite the shock when a headless voice came from the other side of the room.

“Cora wanted help with something and I found myself to be the best for the job. I know you like your lie in so I didn’t wake you”. It was Suvi alright, the soft melodic accent flowing through the room like no other.

A fake a huff came from her in response, “I’d like is better If you were in bed with me right now you know”. She could hear the giggle that she caused, and smiled at it, she loved that laugh.

“lucky for you, we have a little time before you need to be up, so I don’t think I can say no to something like that”. She told herself she was joking, but she wasn’t. if there was one place she had found in their time here that she loved the most, it was in bed wrapped up in Sara’s warm embrace. She made her way to the bed and lifted the covers, laughing at the unimpressed look on Sara’s face as she was momentarily exposed to the cold air of the ship.

“what was it that Cora wanted help with? It’s not normal she asks anyone for help at all”. Her speech was muffled by the fact that her face was nuzzled into the back of Suvi’s neck.

“it was with her special project, she’s trying to make a rose garden on Eos, you know she doesn’t have a lot in Helius. You and I have each other, PeeBee has her Bots and her research, Drack has his grandchildren and the colony, Gill has Jill, Vetra has Sid and Liam has work with the team on the Nexus, but Cora? She doesn’t have a lot, this is just her thing”.

“wow… I didn’t think about it that way. I’m going to talk to her later, she probably has a lot to talk about”.

\---

Sara was sat on the end of a bed in bed in the medbay for her pre-mission physical, Lexi was holding Sara’s left arm above her head checking her triceps for range of movement. “everything check out Lex?”.

“looks like it, your ready to go. Now, get out of here”.

She hopped from the bed and was making her way to the door when her wrist buzzed lightly, “Sara, Cora would like to see you before you leave, she is currently in the cargo bay”. From the glass outside the medbay she could see her hunched over a work bench in the corner.

She passed through the doors into the cargo bay and walked over to Cora in the corner, “hey Cora, what was it you wanted to talk about”.

“I wanted to show you something later when your done with the mission, think you’ll be free to do it?”.

Thankfully, it seemed like Cora had done the hard part for her and done the asking, she took a guess that it was her rose garden, “sure, just send me where I need to be and I’ll meet you there”. She nodded and moved off to continue getting ready for her outing.

\---

It turned out to be nothing serious, nothing serious to them anyway. Just a few Kett camps, wildlife some scavengers, it was nothing too bad but then again, the outpost was made for science and not combat.

She lent against the side of one of the Nomads huge tires, “Cora?”.

It took a second for her to come back through on the comms but she did, “hey what’s up?”

“We’re starting the come back now, be ready when I do”.

“copy that”.

The drive back was short, but smooth is not something you’d call it. Eos was a desert, meaning sand dunes and rocks, add Sara’s driving and what you get is a roller coaster. Sara is a good driver in all as the senses of the word but she is a fast one.

She pulled to the Nomad up to the bottom of the ramp and pressed the button to release the left side door, PeeBee and Jaal hopped out and Cora filled the empty space.

“where am I going?”.

“Sam, put in the coordinates for the place”, the map updated with a red pin appearing on the edge of the large lake near the first outposts.

“what are you doing all the way over there?”, she kept her eyes on the road they were on to avoid the less than intelligent wildlife.  

“you’ll see”.

\---

Stepping out of the Nomad, she couldn’t see anything different, a few dead Karkins maybe but nothing other than that.

“what are we doing here?”, she glanced over to Cora as she walked over to a small black box near a rock.

“This”, she bent down and picked up the Box that she had stood next to, seeing it clearer now Sara could see that it had some remnant markings on one side. “A soil converter, hopefully I can turn some of this sand and dirt into something I can use to get my rose garden someday, then…I can take it where I want to, nobody else’s plan”.

Sara couldn’t help herself but tear up, she had known that Cora was having her own trouble fitting in with everyone else and finding her place in it all.

“I’m honoured that you could share this with me, thank you”, Cora handed her a handful or dirt and waited for the wind to pick up, “Ready?”.

She opened her hand and watched on as the sand floated in the wind until it became nothing more than a speck.


	34. I'll have his head on a pike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara, PeeBee and Vetra get Sid back from some outlaws, but there is more to it than there first appears, and Vetra thinks something isn't quite right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this has taken a while to get out, i wanted to get it out sooner but for some reason i kept getting distracted or losing motivation for this chapter, but its here now, ready for you viewing pleasure.

It was around 7 Pm ship time, Cora and Sara had just finished up a training session in the cargo bay. While Sara was a scientist at heart, she kept her military mindedness somewhat in the forefront, she always wanted to be ready for a fight, so her and Cora train a couple times a week which over time garnered quite the audience from the others on the ship.

Sara collapsed into the side of a supply crate next to the lift as she doused her head in water from a bottle she had with her, she had sweat running down her face, catching her eyes and causing them to sting. She was drained to the core, so drained that she didn’t even notice that the lift had come down and Vetra was now stood beside her.

She was startled into reality by her voice behind her, “Um, Sara? You good?”.

“yeah, I’m alright, what’s up?”, she reached out one of her hands to Vetra so that she might help her up, she was hauled to her feet with the always unexpected strength of a Turian. As she stood and looked into Vetra’s face, she began to see something was of, she didn’t seem as calm and collective as she normally was.

“I just ended a call with the Nexus, they Sid didn’t turn up for work today. They tried to find her but they had no luck. I’m worried about her Ryder, something doesn’t feel right”, now she didn’t need to take what she saw as an indication, it was clear that she trying to keep it together.

“alright, lets, go, and, figure, this out”, her breathing was still heavy from her work out but she manager to get it out eventually.

\---

The pair stepped off the ramp and onto the landing pad, she turned to the distressed Turian standing beside her, “when we get to ops, you go and talk with the others at the station while I pick something up”.

“alright Ryder”, she began to walk off before Sara could finish so she raised her voice as she trailed behind the much faster Turian, “and keep your ears out for anything suspicious!”.

Making their way to tram, nothing seemed too indifferent to what it normally was: busy, loud, crowded and stinking of sweat and oil. The Tram itself was also as it should b, the quiet hum of the electric motors and the sound of HNS over the speakers. All the more reason, she thought, for something to be wrong.

Stepping off the tram, the pair went their separate ways, Sara up the stairs to the Comms officer and Vetra down to where Sid should be right now. Sara had taken the jammer to the officer so that he could find out what was on it, of course she didn’t tell him why she wanted that or who it belongs to.

When she approached, she didn’t face him, she stood next to him and faced out of the towering window that looked out of the front and opening her right hand. “Do you have the jammer?”

“Yes”.

“what did it say?”, she was whispering trying not to draw attention to the conversation that they were having, “anything good?”.

“nope, just a tag to say who it belonged to, said ‘Spender’”.

“thanks”, she took the jammer in her hand and left before he could say anything, or before any more attention could be drawn to her shady looking activities.

As she approached Sid’s station, she was also approaching a very worried looking Turian.

“any luck?”, but their didn’t come a reply, just a shaking head and lightly flaring mandibles.

“Hmm, I wonder how we can do this then”.

“Pathfinder, If I may bay of some use, could use my clearance to look through the security footage and display her movements to you on your scanner”.

In an instant, Vetra’s face lit up as she exclaimed, “Sam, that’s genius!”, “Ryder, pull up your scanner”.

Never one to waste time, she did at once. The orange and white outline of Sid appeared on her screen and turned away from the console, it then started to make its way to the tram.

Sara nudged Vetra’s and began to follow the outline. First to the tram, then to the docks and then to Vortex, but on the way out, the innocent looking trip to the bar turned into something a lot more sinister. A group of men, armed with short improvised blades began to follow her back towards the tram, as she was about to get on, one of the men grabbed her by the arm and began to pull her back out to the docks and then to a shuttle.

“Sam, find out if that shuttle was given take off clearance when it left”.

“no Pathfinder, the shuttle was reported as stolen before when it left”.

“alright Sam, lets do what we did last time we had a situation like this, take a scan of the radiation from the engine and upload it to Suvi and Kallo”.

“Yes pathfinder”.

\---

What incurred was a wild goose chase of uncomfortable proportion:  first was the Pytheas system, home of Eos. Then was Onaon, home of Aya. Then there was Remav, home to what should have been the Turian golden world. Then finally, after hours of chasing the trail around the cluster, they ended up in the system they had nicknamed ‘the heart of evil’, they had seen things go on in this system that people shouldn’t had to and now they were back to Kadara port.

“well, looks like we know where they went”, Sara was stood at her console on the bridge with her arms crossed over her chest, she didn’t like the idea of going down there but she had to, not just for Vetra. But for Sid too.

Drack was stood beside gill and Vetra, listening to Sara ramble about some things, she brought up a map of the area they thought Sid was. He gave it glance, not thinking anything of it, until he saw the corner where it looked familiar, “Ryder, the corner looks like where we found that stuff on spender doesn’t it?”.

Without saying anything, she grabbed the railing to tightly her knuckles went white, she didn’t need to say anything, the others could see the smoke coming from her ears perfectly from where they were. Under her breath he released it at once, “that bastard, if he’s involved, I’ll have his head on a pike!”.

She continued, “I’ve looked over the maps for the surface and I want to do a hard drop here in the Nomad, its quick, easy but obvious”, she reached out her hand and pointed out a plain in the corner of the map.

Gill, who was stood back on the other end of her walkway along with Vetra impulsively voiced his concerns, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, and how do you expect to get picked back up again?”.

she turned to him and smiled, “we do it the normal way, how else do you think?”.

Gill shot back a look of feigned annoyance, “hardy har har, very funny Ryder, come on let’s go”. She turned from her console and left the bridge.

She climbed down the ladder and headed for the armory, she wouldn’t be taking a lot with her, from what she’d seen in the past she knew there wasn’t anything they could do against her. She opened the locker and looked over her choice of armour and weaponry.

For armour it wasn’t a contest, her biotic boosting skin suite was the only option for this, normally she wore nothing but her Hypergaurdian armour but for something like this that was powerful and quick, the biotic suite was going to be the way to go.

Then there was her weapon, she looked over her selection of rifles, shotguns and her favourite black widow sniper rifle, but one thing caught her eye, her old Asari sword. Back when she was an alliance peacekeeper, she had helped a team of Asari huntresses out of a sticky situation. In gratitude, one of them gifted Sara her sword, something not many none Asari can say that they own.

She stepped out into the cargo bay to see Vetra and PeeBee climbing into the Nomad, after PeeBee climbed into the backseat she climbed in herself and closed the door, she turned to the others and explained the plan.

“Alright, here’s the plan. Vetra, you’re going to take point on a hill and relay intel. PeeBee, you and I are going to use our biotic cloaks to sneak up and clear the out the enemy from the inside. Got it?”.

The other two in the vehicle simply nodded, and strapped themselves in.

\---

The cargo bay door wined as it broke from the locks in the floor, slowly revealing more and more of the Kadara skyline.

Suvi’s voice coming through Sara’s earpiece broke the silence that inhabited the cabin of the Nomad, “Sara, be careful please, I’ll be waiting for you”.

She allowed a smile to grow on her face and change her mood, “don’t worry Suvi, I’ll be alright, and back before you know it.

 A red light began to flash in the cargo bay and a shrieking alarm began to ring, pulling Sara’s attention to the side of the door where the light was. Slowly, as the landscape got bigger and bigger, Sara’s focus got more and more intense, until the light went green, the alarm went off and she put her foot down.

The tires screeched as they fought to find traction on the polished metallic floor of the bay, suddenly finding it and launching the vehicle and its occupants out of the front of the ship.

The way down was exactly pleasant, not as good as she had hoped for when she came up with the idea. Well, they were down now and they could get on with it. Like the last time she was here, Sara got out first to stand point and make sure the other two could get out uninterrupted.

She turned to look at the building in the corner, not expecting anything to be different, but it was. The original building was now twice as big as it was, there was now another building connected to it and there was fortifications around the base of the stairs.

If it was the same people then they definitely learned from the last time, but if they were new then they had a better idea than the last ones to be here.

Turning back to the other two, she wanted to get her plan into action, “alright let’s do this, Vetra head up that hill and tell us what you see, PeeBee with me”.

Vetra took off to the hillside whiles Sara and PeeBee headed in towards the towers to do their own scouting.

From what Vetra could see, there were 6 crates around the base of the towers and a guard stood at each, it didn’t seem like too much until she spotted the Berserker stood in the center of the ring.

“Ryder watch out for that Berserker in the middle, you don’t want to do this wrong with him here”.

She scanned the rest of the two structures, not finding anything exactly interesting, other than the shuttle on the landing pad, the very one that was marked as stolen.

As Sara and PeeBee approached the fortifications, they still couldn’t see the Berserker that Vetra ad mentioned. But if she did see it then she wasn’t going to take her chances.

Using her index and middle finger of her left hand, she gestured for PeeBee to take the left side while she took out the guards on the right side, along with the Berserker, wherever it was.

Getting closer she could see the vague red outline of what looked like a dome, the top of Krogans armour to be exact. Now she didn’t need to guess, she knew she had to take it down first, not that it was going to be difficult.

Thanks to her Asari sword she didn’t need to worry about going through armour, channeling her biotic energy into the blade like the user should, it allows it to blink through solid matter, all she needed to do was swing it and it would go right through the armour, and she stopped then it would materialize where it was, hopefully in a vital organ.

Keeping a low profile, she crept nearer and nearer to the first guard, waiting for the right moment. Then, out of put look the guard turned around and faced into the circle. Allowing Sara to have enough time to get into swinging range or her sword.

With her first swing, the guard that was stood before her was now in two pieces, sliced at the neck. PeeBee now knew it was her turn, using her own sword, she took the guard that was opposite to thee one that Sara just killed.

Counter clockwise, the take out continued, until it was just two guards and the Berserker. Sara needed to take out the guard behind it and then take it out before PeeBee took out the last one.

Using her biotics, she dashed over the crate and swinging her sword, again taking off the mans head. For the Krogan, she would have to be more precise with how she did it, trying for the head would probably only make it mad, so she would have to line up her swing with the two hearts so that she could get them both at the same time. Going for the frontal plate isn’t a risk she was willing to take.

It was in this moment she cursed the Krogans for their adaptive abilities. She lined up her blade right under the right arm and brought it back behind her to give her the momentum she needed. In a flash of blue light, a laceration appeared on the Krogans back. It dropped to the floor with a roar as its body struggled to deal with the damage, eventually coming to rest in a heap on the ground.

Almost in unison, PeeBee appeared in front of the last guard and took him out with her sword as well, leaving at least 8 bodies and two rather pleased fighters.

“Vetra, what do you see on the top?”. She scanned the hill where she had told Vetra to hang out, she was surprisingly well hidden.

“not a lot of anything really, there are some more guards, but only human so they won’t be any trouble, other than that there is nothing on the outside. On the inside, I can see the guys we saw from the Nexus, still wearing their initiative attire, and I see Sid in a cell on the side furthest away from you. I’m coming down there”.

By the time she made it down, Sara and PeeBee had already moved up the stairs, taken down the last guards and were waiting outside of the door for her to get there.

“alright let’s do this, Vetra, you’re in first with your armour to deal with any surprises, PeeBee, you’re in next and you’re going to use pull on the 5 initiative men while I go in last and began to tie them up. While I’m tying them up, Vetra go and get Sid out of that cell. Alright 3…2…1…”.

On go, the trio burst through the door and went to work, without any threats to deal with, Vetra went for the cell and started to hack through the security on the console. PeeBee used her Pull ability to lift to 5 men into the Air and Sara tied them up one by one with shackles so that when they got down, they couldn’t go anywhere.

PeeBee let down her field, a thud accompanying the landing of the men on hard metal floor. Sara knelt down beside one, “explain, now”.

“Or what? It’s not like you prove it.”, he turned his head to show her the shit eating grin that was plastered on his face.

“Oh? Is that so?”, the grin on his face didn’t go anywhere.

“Yeah, there isn’t a way that you can prove that we did this”, still grinning like Cheshire cat.

“Well, for starters there is the recreation that Sam did that shows you kidnapping Sid, then there is the footage of you stealing the shuttle from the landing pad, plus the flight recorder of the shuttle that’s sat outside, add the account from the victim of the kidnapping and the fact that Sam records what I see so I can have him send this to Tann if I wanted to. Honestly, how did you think that you got away with this? Anyway your coming with us”.

The expression on his face quickly changed as he realized how much trouble he would be in, along with a string of cursing and shouting from the other 4 of his friends. “and now you can explain why you did what you did while we get you back to the Nexus”, she added.

\---

The doors to the medbay as Sara approached, Sid was getting a check-up from Lexi while Cora and Drack stood with the prisoners in the cargo bay making sure they couldn’t try anything or talk with each other to try and form their defense.

“how is she Lex?”, she was sat in her chair at the desk looking over the results of the tests.

She lifted her head from her datapad to face her, “she’s fine, just a little shook up”.

A sigh of relief broke free, “thank god”.

She took a seat on the bed next to Sid, though she didn’t say anything, after a moments silence, Sid was the first to speak. “thanks, Ryder, for coming to Save me, I know it was dangerous, but you did it anyway so, thanks”.

She turned her head back to see her and said as she smiled, “don’t worry about it, you can thank Vetra for telling me that you went missing. She’s the reason I knew. I need to go and talk with now, we’ll be back at the Nexus soon”.

The trip through the ship was pleasant, the atmosphere was light and cheerful at another job well done. Passing through the doors into the cargo bay she could see that the prisoners were still shackled to the floor as they were and also noticed that Drack was having a fun time intimidating them.

the door to Vetra’s room was closed, presumably so that she didn’t have to look at the prisoners just outside, she knocked on the door and waited for to open. When it did, Vetra was sat at her desk with a datapad typing away to herself.

“Hey, you aright?”.

Without moving her head, she replied with a low tone, “yeah, I’m alright, just need some time for now. But thanks, Ryder, for what you did. But what are you going to do with the people out there?”.

A sinister grin grew on Sara’s face, “they’ll stay in prison until the time is right, then I have an idea. You will have to wait and see”.

Vetra’s pupils dilated in confusion and worry,” well…just one last thing, I overheard one of them saying something about spender, about it being a bad idea. Thought you should know”.

She didn’t get mad, she didn’t raise her voice, she just nodded and simply said, “I had an idea he was”, after that she just left.

“Sam, keep a note about Sara’s behavior, something isn’t right”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	35. could you not make it sarcastic?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PeeBee thanks Ryder for some tech and Sara has a request.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter serves no other purpose than to fill a hole and to acknowledge that PeeBee's loyalty mission has been done.

Sara and Suvi were in the galley enjoying their morning coffee, they had been up for some time now, mainly spending their time in bed where it was warm. The ship was quiet, most of the crew still sleeping, until PeeBee came through on the comms and interrupting their conversation.

“Ryder!”.

She groaned, it was too early for this, “Yes, PeeBee?”.

“Can you come up to the escape pod? There’s something I want to show you”, she sounded excited, ecstatic even. Now she was intrigued, it wasn’t often that PeeBee asked someone to go and see what it is that she had been up to.

She grabbed Suvi’s hand and pulled her from the bench, “come on then, let’s go see”.

They climbed the ladder and headed through the doors to the bridge, normally the door to PeeBee’s room was closed and locked but not this time, this time it was already wide open.

They could see PeeBee inside, standing in front of her remnant observer Poc, she was doing something with it, and Sara couldn’t figure it out.

She moved up to the room and knocked on the door, making PeeBee jump from what she was doing, “Oh! Good, you’re here. What I wanted to show you is, using this piece of Remtech that you got me, Gill believes that I can give Poc a real personality. I can make it a thing!”.

She could feel a slow sinking feeling inside herself, of everything that she could use this for, a robot with a personality isn’t what she was expecting. Knowing PeeBee it would just be nothing but sarcastic. Novel for a while but slowly it would get more and more annoying.

Suvi laughed, “was it worth getting fired out of an escape pod for?”, she turned to Sara and grabbed her hand, she remembered how worried she was when she heard the ejection.

Sara didn’t say anything, but PeeBee wasn’t one to keep her opinions hidden, “Yes, yes it was. But that’s not all I can use it for. I don’t know what else but its raw programming tech so I can use it for almost anything”.

Now Sara chose the time to speak, “can you at least not make it as sarcastic as you are?”. Shooting her a look of feigned irritation, getting a devilish grin back.

“I guess so, if I must, but that isn’t the only reason I called you up here. I called you here so that I could thank you, this tech is capably of doing so much that I didn’t even know where to start. This could change a lot of things Ryder, just you watch”.

“well, I guess it could come in handy for something, just use it responsibly, ok?”, she nudged Suvi’s right shoulder and turned to leave, leaving PeeBee to come up with her undoubtedly peevish tricks.

 

 

 


	36. a gift from Elaaden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the team head to elaaden to see if there is a bomb problem. Suvi starts to miss Sara, but when she gets back there is something worth while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> really don't know what i'm doing right about now, just trying to hold off doing the Archon's ship because of how near the end it is. i don' want to begin the end yet.

_This sounds bad kid_

_To: Ryder_

_From: Drack_

_Thought I’d show you what Strux sent me. A transcript of an excerpt of an audio log that’s got me worried about the colony. Sounds like Morda’s cooking up something. Don’t know what to think._

_Morda: Stop arguing with me, Brenk! It’s payback time for the Initiative._

_Brenk: They don’t care about us._

_Morda: But they will. Soon they’re gonna know that I’m Overlord. And once I execute my plan there’ll be no denying that the Krogan Rule Heleus. Then they’ll come begging to us._

_Brenk: okay, Morda. I’ll get a team together, gather everything we need._

_Morda: No Krogan bows to the Nexus again._

_N. Drack_

_\---_

_What do I need to know about Elaaden?_

_To: Drack_

_From: Ryder_

_What else do I need to know about Elaaden, I know it’s a desert but other than that I know nothing about it, it would be useful to know something things before we get there._

_S. Ryder_

_\---_

_Watch your back_

_To: Ryder_

_From: Drack_

_All you need to know is that this place is full of the worst of the worst, people kicked from Kadara and so on. These people have nothing to lose, then don’t care about life or death, just getting what they want._

_N. Drack_

_\---_

_Head for Elaaden_

_To: Kallo_

_From: Sara_

_It has come to my attention that we have a lot of urgent business to be getting on with on Elaaden, attached to this email are the co-ordinates for the planet, the landing site and a one time use of my clearance for setting the course. Set off as soon as you’re ready._

_S. Ryder_

“Suvi, how well do you handle heat?”, she stood up from her chair and walked towards her bed, where Suvi was lying down reading from one of her datapads.

“not very well, you have to remember that I’m Scottish, we don’t do that” she said amused, “and why?”.

Sara sat down on her side of the bed and lied down next to her, “Well, we’re going to Elaaden right now, hell of a hot place”.

A groan came from the other side of the bed, “oh god, this isn’t going to be good is it?”.

“nope”.

\---

As soon as the cargo bay door opened, she could instantly feel the splintering heat of the desert world, and she wasn’t even in the sun yet.

“Sam, what’s the temperature reading in the shade?”, instead of Sam coming back through, Suvi beat him to it, “in most parts, the ambient temperature is around 50°c and that can make its way up to 125°c in some parts, if you want to recharge your life support then go in to the shade where the temp is down to 39°c, your suite can handle it then”.

“thanks Suvi, now let’s do this”, she stepped out into the sand, the heat now slowly boiling her feet through the soles of her suite. She would have to keep moving if she didn’t want to die out there.

\---

Suvi jumped from her seat, it had been 3 days since she had last seen Sara, she had been in the field with PeeBee and Drack, attempting to figure out what was going on with the Krogan colony and if Morda was actually trying to build a bomb.

It had turned out in the end that the person that had led her there in the first place was trying to get Morda out of the way that so that they themselves could get into power of the colony, leading to a swift but decisive fight between Morda and himself where he found himself on the receiving end of a headbutt that quickly put an end to his plan.

On the plus side, the trip wasn’t wasted, during the confusion, Sara had managed to set up an outpost just outside of the Krogan colony and had coerced the Krogan into joining back with the initiative, so in the end it was all well.

But now she was missing her, it wasn’t the same in that big bed without her, waking up by herself and not even Drack to make her a cup of tea. Sara would be back soon, and she was going to be waiting.

She excused herself from the bridge and down to her quarters, where she stood still, looking at Sara’s side of the bed, where it was empty and cold, she trudged over and dropped herself in, that side of the bed still smelling like her.

she pulled up her omni-tool and began to type.

_I’m waiting_

_To: Sara_

_From: Suvi_

_I’ve been waiting for a while now, come back to our quarters and we might get some time to ourselves for the night._

_;)_

_S. Anwar_

She let out a long sigh, she did miss Sara, the long night talks about science or the funny things that she’d do or say. She didn’t think that she’d miss her as much as she did, but that just made her sure off the choices she had made.

An hour passed and still nothing, Suvi was getting worried, “what if something happened”, “what if she’s hurt”, kept going around and round in her head. But then, out of nowhere, the doors hisses open and Sara was stood right in front of them.

Suvi jumped from the bed and bounded over to her, nearly knocking her down as she landed on her. She pulled her into her arms and then for long, passionate kiss, a kiss that spoke the words that she didn’t have to.

Amid the craziness of Sara’s return, she noticed that one of her hands was seemingly stuck behind her back, “What you got there?”.

From behind her back, she pulled out a small stone, it was orange in hue but had strands of dark blue running down the length, almost like the scourge in that respect. Her face lit up with a smile, she didn’t need verbal confirmation that Suvi liked it, all she had to do was watch her face and it would tell her everything she needed to know.

“I found this out in the sand, I thought you’d like it”, she reached out with her other and grabbed Suvi’s, she opened it and with the other hand, dropped in the stone so that she could inspect it for herself.

No words were spoken from then, only smiles, tears, hugs and kisses. Actions speak louder than words, seemingly now more than ever.

 

 

 


	37. the flagship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and the team venture onto the Archon's ship, with unforeseen circumstances.

The bridge doors hissed open, drawing Gills attention away from the front window, he could see from the look on her face that she was not very happy, “gill, this had better be wort getting me up at 6 AM or your cleaning the bathroom for the next week”.

She was serious, she had people doing it for reasons like this.

“would I wake you if it wasn’t? with the help of Sam, I fixed the transponder I got the location of the Kett flagship, I thought you needed to know”. The look on her face changed in the moment, irritation replaced with intrigue.

“In that case, good job. Sam, wake Kallo for me, will you?”

“Yes pathfinder”, she turned on her heels and stepped over to Suvi’s chair, there was no getting back to sleep for her now, she dropped into the chair and took in a large breath through her nose, smelling her presence.

15 minutes later and the doors to the bridge again hissed open, now for Kallo to come in, “Ryder, you called?”. He headed for his chair and dropped into it though still looking in Sara’s direction waiting for her answer.

“yes, Gill and Sam have located the Kett flagship, the co-ordinates have been put into the map. Have something to eat and then take us there as soon as your ready. Sam, notify me when were near the system”.

She reluctantly pulled herself from the chair and excused herself from the bridge, back to her room, she thought if she couldn’t sleep then there was nothing wrong with spending some more time with her girlfriend.

\---

Sara was getting roused from her slumber by the low rumbling of her omni-tool, she had fallen asleep wrapped around Suvi’s body, she had gotten back into bed just to be with her but she hadn’t intended on falling back to sleep.

Again the rumbling came from her wrist and again she tried to ignore it, but it was no use, if she wanted it to stop then she would have to get out of bed. She reached out an arm, searching for Suvi, but her side of the bed was empty.

Confused, she rolled onto her back, “Sam, what time is it”.

“The time is 12:41 PM, you requested to be notified when we approached the system, most of the crew is currently active and Suvi is currently on the bridge”.

“oh, that’s right”, she swung her left leg out from under the quilt and stood up, feeling slightly disorientated. She knew there was no point getting into her normal clothes just to get into her armour anyway, so PJ’s it was.

She strolled out of her quarters and up the ladders, into the bridge, up behind Suvi’s chair. She peered over and dropped a kiss on her forehead, “good afternoon, sleep well?”.

Suvi twisted her head around and chuckled, “yes, I did. And so did you from the look of it”.

Now she could hear Kallo chuckling from the other side, she raised her hands to her head. That was it, bed head, she knew then that she looked like she had slept for a week.

She headed for her console as she tried to straighten out her hair even slightly, pulling up the map, she sensed that this was a new system that they hadn’t been through before. Times like this always made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She didn’t know what they would run into.

“Sam, tell PeeBee and Jaal that they’re on the ground team and that they need to be ready to get started”.

“closing out of FTL flight now”, Kallo called out, then with a bang, the system came into view. Vast amounts of scourge and emptiness. How could the ship be all the way out here, it was on the other side of the cluster?

“Sam are you sure that this is where the points lead to?”.

“yes pathfinder, they lead to the other side of the star system”.

“then take us in Kallo”, she turned back to Suvi and gave her a confused look when the ship took off in direction of the Scourge, she hoped that they wouldn’t have anything to do with it.

But then. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see something, she wasn’t sure what but she could make out that it was a ship of some kind. Getting close it got clearer and clearer, it was the Archon’s ship alright, and it also had Ark Paarchero tethered to it.

“it’s ark Paarchero!”, came Kallo, no doubt happy to see that it hadn’t been lost or destroyed.

“Sam, take scans and tell us what you can”.

“the ark is currently in standby, only the cryobay, lights and life support are powered, all flight systems are operational. However, I do not detect any unfrozen life signs from within the vessel”. That is not what she wanted to hear.

“Kallo, find us somewhere to land, I don’t think they’ve noticed us yet”, she returned to Suvi’s chair and looked her in the eye, “I won’t take too long, I’ll be back before you know it”.

A look of worry started to grow in Suvi’s eyes, “I know you will, but that’s the Archon’s ship, it’s more dangerous than anything you’ve done before. Please, just come back to me”.

Sara cupped Suvi’s chin softly with her right hand, “I will always come back to you”. Then planted a kiss on her lips, one of reassurance. Then she got up to leave, there were things that needed to be done.

\---

“alright we’re approaching the cryobay, nothing yet”, she peered around the doors to check for any hostiles in the area, when she was sure that there was nothing there, she gestured to Jaal and PeeBee to follow her into the room.

“pathfinder, if you patch me into the system then I might be able to access more information”, she didn’t need to think about that one, she knew there was a console at the end of the room where the informational Vi was on the wall.

She hovered her omni-tool near the console that Sam could access it, “Sam what do we have?”.

“One moment, there is additional encryption on this system, patterns indicate Salarian intelligence services”, a moment later one of the automated messages began to play aloud from the board only to be interrupted by an error and the voice of the Paarchero’s captain, “if you are hearing this message then it means the ship has been captured by alien forces, I urge you to search for pathfinder Zevin Raeka, she’ll know what to do”.

“I wonder she is now”, she turned to the other 2 in the squad for suggestions, Jaal didn’t look like he had any ideas but PeeBee had that look on her face and shrugged her shoulders, “Guess we could start with that Salarian on the bed over there”.

Half way down the room was a lone Salarian on one of the medical beds, “guess we’ll have to, let’s get a Scan”. The scan was not of much use, but it did tell them that Raeka had been put back into Cryo to avoid capture. Her resurrection was quick and simple, just as it should have been.

She stayed behind to ready the crew for a jump away from flagship while the other 3 moved on to board it and find the relic, “remember guys, the Moshea said that Meridian was the middle of the vault network, we need to relic and the map if we are going to get there”.

\---

“what are you doing here?”, she glared at Raeka who was stood at the end of the tether.

“there is too many of my people missing, I have to find them. This is captain Heyjer of the Ark, he’s going to be making an EMP to disable the guns for out escape. We need a way in to look around”.

Sara glanced around the room, it was the opposite end to the one they were taking but if she needed a way in then this was going to do, “that way, we can help you get going but then we have our own mission”. She jogged over to the console in front of the door and got Sam to do the work, she didn’t speak Kett.

The door hissed open and Raeka ran through with the captain, “thank you, good look pathfinder”. It felt good to hear her say that.

\---

All as one, the trio took one step too far, and in an instant found themselves frozen in and orange bubbled. But it didn’t feel physical, it felt like the air had become so much more dense that it was impossible to move at all

It didn’t take long for the one Kett to make his dramatic entrance, a guard on either side and a smug look on his face, “Now, we can begin”, he pulled a small device from behind him, larger on one end and a spike on the other end. The smug look on his face was replaced with a menacing grin, from ear to ear. He stabbed the sharp end of the device into the back of her neck. “let’s see what we get from – “, he was cut off by the rattling of he whole ship, Sara suspected that Raeka and Heyjer stirring up a fuss somewhere else.

 The Archon and his guards turned on their heals and took off in a hurry, leaving Sara, Jaal and PeeBee still suspended, “um, Sam? Any ideas?”. Her voice stung with worry.

“I detect a neurotransmitter in your bloodstream Pathfinder, and scans indicate that the field you are in only contains living organisms”, moments like this made her hate the fact that Sam couldn’t feel emotions.

“so…what your telling me is that you need to kill me for me to get out of here. When I thought about the ability to alter physiology this isn’t what came to mind”, she knew that jokes weren’t appropriate in that moment, but she joked when she was afraid.

From over her shoulder she could hear PeeBee call her out “is this really the time for jokes Sara?”.

“I makes jokes when I’m scared ok!”, she exclaimed back at her.

The room fell silent, she was trying to figure out what the best approach to this would be, “Sam, are you sure that there was nothing else you can do about this?”.

“Yes pathfinder, then I will attempt immediate resuscitation”, it sounded to her, like he wasn’t trying to help her.

At this point, Suvi was curled up in her chair, he couldn’t believe what she was hearing, first that Sara was stuck and then that she was going to allow Sam to kill her to get out of it, she didn’t know what she hated the idea of more.

Kallo was watching her, concerned. Suvi was his best friend on this ship and he didn’t like seeing her worry or be in pain.

“alright Sam let’s do this”, then everything went dark, not just for Sara but for Suvi as well. Sara’s limp body hit the ground with a heavy thud, and Suvi passed out, in that moment her entire life flashed before her eyes, every memory and all the times that she couldn’t remember, she saw them in a flash.

“Stimulating cardiovascular core, zero activity…Stimulating cardiovascular core”. The flashes began to fade and got more and more further apart. Then she saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but it wasn’t at the end of the tunnel, it was on the roof of the Archon's ship.

The others could only sit and watch as Sara hit the floor and then silently for 10 seconds as Sam called out the stimulation. Finally after 15 seconds, a sudden and large breath, and Sara pulled herself to her feet.

“that didn’t feel better the second time, now to get you two down”, the console to her left was probably the best bet in the end. He waved her hand over it to let Sam do the work, the orange glow that surrounded PeeBee and Jaal then also disappeared and allowed them to fall back to the floor.

Back on the Tempest, Kallo had notified Lexi and had Drack come and carry Suvi down to the medbay so she could be looked after. The episode would only last a few minutes but it’s what happens when she wakes up that could be the problem.

A few minutes passed, and as expected she woke up without issue, other than some general confusion. She didn’t turn her head or sit up, she simply asked aloud, “why am I in the medbay?”.

At this point Lexi had already formed her conclusion, a substantial amount of adrenaline was in her system and when Sara died it dropped rapidly, lowering her heart rate and blood pressure, the immediate drop meant not enough blood was getting to the brain allowing momentary loss of consciousness to happen.

She also knew that Suvi had a general knowledge of biology so she didn’t try to beat around the bush, “Syncopal episode caused by adrenaline, you’ll be in here for the next hour”.

All that came was a groan and then some mumbling, she didn’t hear much, but she did hear her say Sara’s name. someone was getting talked with later and not just from Suvi. On the inside she was furious about Sara’s choice of actions.

\---

“alright this is the Archon's chamber ahead, keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks like what we’re here for”. The corridor was suspiciously empty and quiet, nothing but four large tanks of some green liquid was to be seen.

As they approached the end, Sara could feel her stomach begin to twist and turn within, she had already died and now she was about to be in the Archon's private chamber, this was more than she had bargained for.

In one the tanks to the left of the door was something that struck her with a deep feeling of dread, she walked up to the tank, “Is that...is that a Krogan?”. The other two must have also felt her sense as they too fell silent, luckily or not so luckily Sam was there to provide some insight, “The DNA is inherently Krogan but is drastically altered, it seems they are close to successfully exalting the species”.

For a minute, they stood, not talking or panicking, just standing, in silence as they thought about how this could change things, “Sam, didn’t Drack say he was missing some scouts? Send him an image and confirm for me”.

“Yes pathfinder”, it didn’t take long for the low rumble of Drack’s voice to fill the air around them. “yeah, I’m missing some scouts alright, I just can’t make out which one though”.

This genuinely scared her, Krogans were hard to take care of when they weren’t infused with other Kett genetics, “Cora, get Drack and Vetra and head on the Ark, then wait at the end of one the tethers just in case something goes really south, I want some extra help if I can get it”.

“copy that”, quick and to the point, this is the kind of Cora she wanted right now.

“alright, lets head in”, the doors parted, she didn’t know what she expected to see but when she got a clear look all she could see was remnant tech, on floating podiums.

Almost like it had been planned, it took them to the end of the room to get what it was that they were looking for. At last, sweet victory at last, except it wasn’t in the end.

The whole room shook beneath them and a mess of Kett flooded through the door, spearheaded by the exalted Krogan they had seen minutes before.

Sara felt a wave of anger well from within her, blood lust to be more accurate, all she could think about now was death, the death of herself, the Salarians and Krogans, now the Kett would know how it felt to die.

When she threw the first singularity, instead of the blast being a small enough for only a few enemies, it encased the whole room and pulled everything off its feet, except the Krogan now facing them down.

“you two stand back”, she gestured her hands to either side of her to signal that actually they did need to move, when she was sure that she wasn’t going to harm the other two, she held out her arm and focused on the Krogan. Her eyes began to pierce the very fabric of its being. Bit by bit it started to fall apart, during the charge first one leg went, then one of its arms, then the other leg leaving nothing but a skull, a torso and an arm, now free of weight that too was sucked up into the death trap that was the singularity.

All of the Remtech that was floating within made it a grinder, Sam had already identified it as junk so its not like it was important or anything. Her gaze snapped from where the Krogan was up to the mess in the air. Without gesture, the black hole in the middle of the room started to shrink, slowly getting smaller until the contents fell to the floor with a bang.

With that, the blue aura that surrounded her too faded back into thin air and she snapped out of her rage. PeeBee, feeling now quite unnerved by the whole experience tried to break the silence, “glad Drack wasn’t here to see that”.

“yeah, lets get out of here”. Her voice was shaky at best, and her step was unsteady.

Now the corridor again was eerily silent, not even the bubbling of the holding tank was there to break it. About three quarters the way down, the room lit up with the orange hue of the Sara’s omni-tool, and the sound of Raeka came out, “Ryder, I’m pinned down, this is the end for me, Heyjer is back on the ark readying the crew, but this is where stuck here”,

Sara was then Frozen solid, she had found the first other pathfinder and now she might lose her, she couldn’t let that happen, “Raeka where are you?”.

“near the holding cells where they’re holding several of my people, I can’t leave them here, I have to try”, at the end, her voice was strained, desperate. She had to move fast. But not before Sam put a spanner in the works. “pathfinder, I am reading sever Krogan life signs on this vessel, they are in the opposite holding cells and are scheduled for exaltation”.

By now she was running down to the holding cells, she wasn’t going to lose another pathfinder. But she was smarter than to leave the scouts here to die, this is the exact reason she had ordered Cora to get the other team together. “Cora, did you get that last one? I need you to go and get those scouts out of those cells, I need to get Raeka”.

Cora the ever intelligent one was already bee lining it for the cells, determined not to let Drack lose his scouts, “Already on the way there”.

Sara breathed a sigh of relief, she knew it was a good choice to have Cora as her second in command, because she was smart enough to know where she was needed.

\---

“GET TO THE ARK! ITS GOING TO BE POWERED AGAIN SOON, HEYJER FIRE THE EMP AND THEN READY THE ARK”, the whole ship rocked, and the lights went dark, they needed to get back to the Ark before the Archon was able to use his ships broadside to the blow it to pieces. If they didn’t get back soon then it was the end for a lot of Salarians.

For a ship of its size it was rather empty, a lot of it was empty space not even taken up by the Kett, making the sprint back to the Ark a lot easier than Sara had thought it would have been. As they approached the Tether than they had come across she could see the glowing of the Arks engines against the vast darkness of the surrounding space.

Breathing easier she pushed all the others through the doors before herself and then stood and waited.

“Cora? Cora, where are you?!”, she need not ask, because the second she did Cora and the rest of the team along with the scouts came barreling around the corner and across the room. Like the others she hurried them through the doors and then followed behind them.

“Sam, tell Heyjer to jump when he can, then transmit the location of the first jump to the Tempest for pick up”.

An end to an ordeal, one that had left her scarred in more way than one. It was over, but the scars would be around for a while yet. Not even considering the lectures she would be getting when she got back to the Tempest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally this chapter is done, it should not have taken this long to do but i kept getting distracted or getting to the end of my attention span, but it is done and it is here.
> 
> if some of it doesn't make sense then please point it out to me, don't let me sit here thinking its coherent.


	38. a gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PeeBee, Drack and Cora have something special for Sara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been waiting to put this in for the longest time, i wanted to put some things in about one of my runs that i enjoyed.

Suvi grabbed wrapped her fingers around the handles of the two steaming cups of tea on the worktop, then cautiously carried them out to her quarters. When she entered, Sara was sat at the desk typing away at her console.

She placed down one of the mugs and began asking questions, “what are You up to this morning?”.

Without lifting her head from staring down at her fingers, Sara didn’t miss a beat, “just making up some plans, you know how it is”.

“yes, I do know how it is, but something tells me this isn’t a normal plan”, she stood behind her and placed her left hand on Sara’s right shoulder, looking over to whatever is on the screen, “oh”.

Sara let out a loud sigh, “yeah…”. It was an email to Harry about Scott. After seeing what the Archon saw she instantly started thinking to how he could use it against her and how she could stop him from doing it. She was smart like that but at the end of the day she was only trying to stop herself from getting outplayed in the game of war.

“he knows what makes me tick, and knows what makes me special. I’m not going to allow him to use it to his advantage. The email just said to tell me when Scott wakes up so I can bring him on board, he can’t use Sam if he doesn’t have a way in”. she took a sip of her tea, stood up from her chair and then took Suvi by the hand, “we’ll get through this”.

She leant closer to her, going in for a morning kiss but as she did, she was interrupted by the soft hiss of the doors opening and Cora walking through. She looked so innocent in the face of the anger coming from the other two.

Realising her mistake, Cora burst into apologies and stuttering, “Oh! I’m sorry! I should have knocked first. There’s something in the cargo bay for you, just um…come down when you’re ready”, she backed out of the doorway as her face began to go back to its normal colour, leaving the other two alone again.

Suvi chuckled lightly, “typical”, and tapped Sara on the shoulder. “I guess you should go and see what they have waiting for you, sounds like it’s going to be fun”.

Sara sighed again, it probably was if she wasn’t told it was there until now. “alright…let’s go”, she took Suvi by the hand once again and began the walk towards the cargo bay. It was suspiciously quiet, not PeeBee arguing on the bridge or Drack arguing with Lexi and no Vetra talking with Cora, she’d guessed by then that she’d been set up.

She didn’t know what to expect when she got there, but when she did, she saw Drack, PeeBee and Cora stood by 3 crates in the middle of the room, all grinning like a Cheshire cat. Walking onto the lift she spied the end of what looked like a barrel sticking from beneath the lid of one of the boxes, sparking her curiosity.

She stepped off the lift and rambled around to the other side so that she was facing the trio, “someone going to tell me what this is about or am I going to have to find out for myself?”.

“don’t be silly, we’ll show you”, simultaneously, her, Drack and Cora lifted the lids of the crates to reveal a set of armour, two guns and a pair of gloves.

“A special set of Remnant equipment just for you”, the smile on PeeBee’s face was now beaming, “you’ve done something pretty big for us all you know, you got me that programming tech, even though you don’t have spender yet you’ve done a lot for Drack and for Cora you saved an entire Ark. So it’s our turn to give back to you”.

Drack picked up the gun from out of the crate and tossed it to Sara, and the laughing as she overestimated the light weight design, “this gun is something special, I wish I had something like this but in shotgun form. Using Remnant tech from PeeBee this thing doesn’t need ammo, just time to cool down if you shoot it for too long. The stuff this thing fires is going through even the hardened hide of a fiend, you don’t have to worry about it.”.

He grabbed the second gun from the chest and threw it to Sara like he had done with the first one, but this time without warning. She only just managed to put the other one down before throwing her hands up in a ditch attempt to catch it. Only getting more a laugh from the old man.

“this one is for most of the engagements when it’s not close range but not far enough for the sniper, it works the same way just without as much punch, and its full auto”.

She placed it down softly next to the first one and stepped over to the other two crates that had the armour in it. Peering down it seemed like the armour too was made of some kind of remnant tech, though she didn’t exactly like bulky armour, she was going to wear it at least once.

PeeBee lent over the top and pulled out the chest piece, turning it to face Sara, “don’t worry, this armour is even lighter than your biotic suite thanks to the mass effect fields it generates, plus it blocks more damage than your other suite as a result. Not just that, but Cora has put something special in it for you, right Cora?”.

Sara turned her attention to her lieutenant, waiting for her part of the plan, “that’s right, using a mixture of remnant and Helius tech I have made upgraded biotic amps so that you can pass more through it, then it captures the wasted heat generated and runs it back through so you don’t waste any. And making you twice as strong”.

Before Sara could even try to say anything, she was cut off by PeeBee’s high pitched excited voice, “what are you waiting for, go and try it on!”.

“yeah kid, go get it on and show us”, came Drack.

She grabbed the chest piece from PeeBee and moved it around in her hands, to their credit it was lighter than her other stuff, almost weightless in fact, “bring the rest up and I’ll do a test fit just for now, I have some things I still need to do”.

She turned on her heal and with one hand picked up her tea that was Luke warm by now at best, and left towards the ramp, she had moved her armory to one side of the bridge so that she could keep all of her things separate and sorted away from everything else.

\---

She slipped the thing brace over her hand on onto her forearm, it was as they said very light, but there were things about the armour that they hadn’t told her about, like the fact that shortly after she put on the chest piece, she would have a thin biotic layer over her entire body, or about the fact that it made her body tingle with all of the extra energy it was creating just from being worn, but she thought she might be able to get used to it.

There was something that she still couldn’t figure out, she didn’t know how she was supposed to lock the clips on the back to fasten it in place. She shouted to the others who were waiting outside, “guys…. how do I fasten this thing”.

“Oh we didn’t tell her? Sara its linked to your implant so you can just think it and it happens”. Considering PeeBee was the one with the explanation she guessed it was her doing.

First, she tried to ask it to, but nothing happened. Then she tried to think it to do it, but nothing happened. Finally she told it to, then with a string of clicks and contractions, the back of the suite got tighter and tighter until she was no longer able to shift it around with her hands.

“Ok guys it worked, anything else I need to know about this suite?”. Knowing them as well as she did, she knew that probably, there was going to be something else, even if she didn’t know what it was.

“uh, yeah, probably”, came the reply from outside, again it was PeeBee. Even if she wasn’t the one that came up with the ideas, she was the one with the knowledge of the remnant so it was likely that she was the one who implemented it.

“think about becoming invisible, then try thinking of hovering and the finally think about putting down a small shield”. She added.

“alright let’s try this”, she whispered to herself as she focused her mind. Slowly she began to disappear from the mirror before her, not from top to bottom or the other way around but with a gradual fade into nothing.

“now to get back to being visible”, again a whisper. She stopped thinking about being invisible but that didn’t bring her back. “well ok then, let’s try thinking myself back”, it started with her outlines and then her image started to fill back in, steadily but slowly.

She thought she might be getting more used to this so she didn’t waste as much time with it. All of a sudden, something changed, she started to feel strange, like she didn’t weigh anything, she was so lost in her thoughts that she even notice the fact that she had been lifted off the ground and was now hovering a foot off the ground. Until she was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Cora’s concerned voice from outside, “Whoa”, now she knew it was floating.

She was impressed, nobody else around would have the brains and knowledge, the skills and the resources to build something like this, for a band of dysfunctional outcasts they pulled together to make something both powerful and unique.

“This is amazing guys well done. I’m…I’m almost speechless, I can’t – “.

She was cut off by Sam’s monotone voice blasting the inside of the small room, “Pathfinder, Dr Carlisle would like to speak with you, he is waiting for you on the vidcon channel”.

“thanks Sam, did he say what about? Guys I don’t have time to test the shield thing out right now so I will when I can. But thanks again, this armour is incredible”. Now she was back on the floor and thinking the armour open.

“yes, he wanted to talk about your brother”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> while i don't use the sniper or the armour in my playthroughs, the assault rifle is easily my favourite gun in the game.


	39. About that

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott is finally awake, Suvi is nervous and Sara has to figure out how she is going to tell him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know it has been a long time since i put something out but life has been hectic lately, i will try not to go too long without throwing you the next chapter. 
> 
> i don't know if you'll get any Christmas one shots but the chapters for this month will definitely be Christmas orientated.

Sara stared out into the darkness in front of the tram, she was lost in her thoughts. She had been waiting for months now to finally see Scott and now she would be able to. She had seen him before but then she could only speak with him through his implant, now she could see him speaking like he should.

Suvi was on her right, her girlfriend, the love of her life, and the only person to really understand who she really was. On her left was her second in command and best friend, Cora, she had done a lot for her over the time that they had known each other, from having to deal with not being the pathfinder to running a ship with a dysfunctional family, she had been through a lot too.

A tear escaped her eye, it almost felt like it wasn’t real, like she was dreaming it all up in her sleep, but it was real and now it was getting close.

The tram slowed to a stop, she took a deep breath and turned the door. This was it, what she had been wanting for so long. The doors parted and the illuminated sign of the cryobay came into view.

She took a step out od the tram and started to make her way towards the door. When she was just outside, she stopped a looked around, Suvi and Cora had stopped walking half the room back and were stood looking at her.

Suvi must have been able to see the worry on Sara’s face because she walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, “I know this must be hard for you, but we’re both outside if you need us. This is your moment to enjoy, we’re not far away”. She pulled her in for an innocent kiss there and then and began to go backwards towards Cora.

Sara again took a deep breath and turned back to the door. She edged forward so that the door would open, and then she saw him. He was sat on the edge of one of the beds, the same bed that she had sat on so many months ago.

She felt her whole body tense up as she got closer and closer to the bed, and closer to her unaware brother. If not for what had happened since she got there, she would have already run into his arms and started babbling to him, but not this time. This time the situation was less than desirable, and there was a lot of things she needed to tell him.

As she neared the side of the bed, she could see that he noticed that she had caught his attention and he was now aware of her presence, he didn’t say anything but he did have a miserable smile on his face.

She sat down on the bed and wrapped her arms around him, rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. “there’s a lot I need to tell you now your awake”, her voice was broken yet somehow full of expression.

He too leaned his head to one side so that it sat comfortably sat on top of Sara’s and in his softest, quietest voice answered, “tell me all about it”.

\---

She stared down onto the empty plate on the table in front of her, today was the day, the day she was going to have to meet Scott for the first time. What if he didn’t like her or had something against her? What if Sara had told him something embarrassing about her and he was the kind of person who liked to tease others? For once there was something, she didn’t have an answer to, she didn’t like not having answers.

A coughing broke her trance from her plate and brought her back into reality, Cora was sat beside her, staring at her, with a concerned look on her face. It wasn’t a face that she could say that she knew well but she had seen it at least once before.

“Suvi, are you ok? You look distressed”. Her voice was soft and worried, not normal for her, but Suvi guessed that it probably had something to do with the fact that she was the pathfinders girlfriend.

“yeah, its nothing. Just thinking about meeting Scott later that’s all”, the look on Cora’s face changed then from worry to amusement and a small chuckle left her lips.

“that’s what you’re worried about? You, a confident scientist is worried about meeting your girlfriends brother? That’s funny, he is just like her, just not as smart or strong. I met him a couple times before we left, he’s a nice guy you’ll be fine”.

That didn’t do much good however, if he was just like Sara than he would have a side of him that liked to make jokes and poke fun at people, she hoped she wouldn’t be on the receiving end of a personal joke.

“are you sure, you know how Sara can be some times, what if he doesn’t like me?”, she was feeling a little better now, and it showed, she wasn’t speaking as quietly anymore.

Cora chuckled again, “I’m sure, he is going to love you if you make her happy, and you do so I think he will take to you just fine”.

The before Suvi could say anything else, a figure came around the door and looked on Curiously, “what are you two talking about?”, it wasn’t serious because she was only curious but that didn’t stop Suvi from blurting something out, trying to hide it, “Nothing! Just meaningless conversation”.

Sara furrowed her brow and tilted her head like a dog, obviously not buying it, “o…k if you say so”, she stepped over to the counter and began to make herself some tea for the morning.

 _She_ didn’t seem too worried about anything, Suvi thought to herself, was that a good thing or a bad thing, she didn’t know but she would have to see.

\---

the pair walked down the ramp to the pad where the Tempest was sat, Scot had seen in in the films but not in real life yet. The look on his face is exactly what Sara had been hoping for, complete amazement, speechlessness and a wide smile. While he was looking at something, he could only see on screen she was looking at something that she called a home.

“Sam, ask Kallo to open to doors for me please”, the door wasn’t normally closed when it was docked on the Nexus, it had armed guards so it didn’t need to be kept closed. She brushed it off as nothing and waited for the door to open.

A moment later she got what she asked for, and Lexi and Cora facing them at the door. Cora took a steep forward and held out her hand, “Lieutenant Cora Harper, second in command, its nice to meet you after hearing so much about you”.

Scott turned his head to Sara and smirked, “oh you have, have you? The pleasure is all mine”, he changed his attention to Asari stood behind her, “And you must be Lexi, good job keeping her alive this long, I’m surprised she hasn’t died yet”.

Sara felt her stomach drop, she hadn’t told him yet that she had died on the Archons ship, her eyes went wide and her eyebrows rose as she stared at the doctor hoping that she would catch on, she didn’t seem to be getting it until she looked around Scots head to see her wide eyes, she started to lose the tension.

“It’s definitely been a challenge that’s for certain”. She told him chuckling to herself. “Cora’s going to show you around and meet everyone and then you need to come to the medbay for a physical”.

Cora grabbed him by the arm and took him off towards the lift.

Sara moved up and stood next to Lexi, she didn’t have to say anything, they were both thinking the same thing, “you haven’t told him, yet have you?”, she was following Scott with her eyes while Sara spoke, “no I haven’t, I need to wait for the right time”.

Lexi left off, leaving her there by herself for a minute before she went on the search for her girlfriend.

She wasn’t in her seat on the bridge like she normally is and she wasn’t in the quarters like she was in her free time, no she was in the galley like Cora had left her, but Sara didn’t know that. She had her head down towards the table and an empty plate.

She felt her heart ache, she didn’t like seeing Suvi like this, she didn’t want her to feel like this. She put on her softest voice and sat down beside her. “heyy, what’s wrong?”.

She lifted her head from the table and looked at her with worry in her eyes, “Nothing, just nervous about meeting Scott that’s all”.

“Oh Suvi, you don’t have to worry about that, he’s a nice guy, just be yourself and you’ll be fine, come on he’ll be in the cargo bay again by now, don’t hold hands when we go in there and I’ll tell him so you don’t even need to say anything”. She took her hand and stood up to try to get her to get up as well. It took her a second, but she did and trailed behind slightly as they headed back to the cargo bay.

Scott, being the ever more engineering orientated of the two was Sat with gill and Cora on top of a crate like the crew tended to do when they were waiting around for something. She could already tell that he was engrossed in what they were saying as he didn’t move a muscle as they walked in through the doors, just after they put on their “purely acquaintance” act.

Finally, as the lift got to the bottom did Scott finally notice that there were two people walking up behind him. He stood up from the crate and smiled as Suvi, “you must be doctor Anwar, pleasure to meet you”.

Suvi blushed at the compliment, it wasn’t often someone said that it was a pleasure, “please, call me Suvi, and the pleasure is all mine after all we’ve heard about ya”.

“what is it that you have degrees in?”, he sat back down but continued to look in her direction.

“that would be astrophysics and molecular biology”, she was getting into it now, this wasn’t as bad as thought it would be.

“wow, you know your stuff, Sara’s kind of woman”, this caused them both to chuckle for a moment, for two different reasons. He thought he was embarrassing her but actually he was just confirming what the crew already knew. During this time Sara used her biotics to pull another crate over and tapped Suvi on the shoulder.

She backed up and sat down next to Sara, it was her time to speak.

“about that Scott, the thing is…we’re dating already, and have been for a long time now. Ii would have told you earlier but I needed to wait for the right time”.

Scott’s face went flat, worrying to the pair. A second later he looked Suvi dead in the eyes and broke the silence, “Just don’t let her rub off on you” causing to the rest of the people in the cargo bay to break out in laughter.

The pair breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief as they too allowed themselves to have a bit of a laugh at their own situation.

“also don’t get into any competitions with her either”, he added as she widened his eyes, “she’ll do anything in order to win”.

Suvi chuckled again, “don’t we know it”.

By now Sara was lost in thought, and smiling away to herself, it went off without a hitch. Now she had her brother back with her, on her ship, getting along with her girlfriend around her new family making a dent in the ever expanding problem that was Helius. For once she sat there in silence, and she felt good about what she had done.

 


	40. it will all be worth it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara gets her Christmas plans into action and Scott has something special to get done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this will be the last chapter before Christmas, the next chapter will be around the 24th but be set for the following day. 
> 
> merry Christmas everyone!

Suvi started to stir in the early hours of the morning, not expecting Sara to be up yet she rolled over and extended her arm to her but to her surprise, the bed was empty. Then she heard it, the soft sound of Sara’s voice singing songs away to herself from the galley. But not any old songs, Christmas songs.

Sara was a woman of classics and what she considered the good old days. She enjoyed the old songs from the 20th and 21st centuries, she just liked them better than anything that had come out in her own lifetime.

It was that time of year again, if she was correct with her date keeping it was December first, meaning Sara allowed herself to sing without any regret.

Suvi sat up and listened, she could still hear her voice despite being behind more than one wall, “It was Christmas eve babe, in the drunk tank, an old man said to me, won’t see another one, and then they sang a song, the rare old mountain dew, I turned my face away and dreamed about you”.

Suvi got herself out of bed, threw on her dressing gown from the couch and made her way out to the galley. She walked in and joined Sara in the chorus, getting her attention and her smile, “and the boys of the NYPD choir still singing Galway bay, and the bells are ringing out for Christmas day.”

Suvi sat down next to Sara and wrapped an arm around her as they sang together to the end of the song. When the song came to an end, Sara turned and gave Suvi kiss, “good morning you”, then started nuzzling her neck.

Suvi kissed her back on the forehead and rested her head on top of hers, “what are you doing up at this time of the morning”.

“you know I can’t pass up the Christmas spirit, I’m making plans for decorations and stuff for the ship. I wan this to be nice a lit up like it your house would be”. She picked up her datapad from the table and held it up in front of Suvi’s face so that she could get a hold of it and read it.

On the screen was numerous people and places with all sorts of lights and decorations listed. Some of them she recognized, like the tree, the lights and the star for the top of the tree and some she didn’t like a heart made out of holly.

She handed the datapad back to Sara and got up from the bench to move over to the counter. She turned on the kettle and turned back towards Sara on the bench, “How do you plan to get the plants all the way out here”.

Sara didn’t say anything, but she used a finger on her right hand to tap the side of her nose. Suvi knew it usually meant that she was using her position to get what she wanted from people, she didn’t normally do that but she definitely did every once in a while.

She chuckled to herself, people would do anything for Sara because of her position. But the best thing is that Suvi knew that Sara would do anything for her, because she loved her.

“just tell me when you need some help and I’ll come runnin”. She turned back around to finish up two cups of tea. She handed one to Sara with a kiss and went back to bed for the warmth.

After the doors had closed again and she was alone, Sara sat there and smiled, not only because of the experience she had just had with her girlfriend but also because she just so happened to be blissfully unaware of what Sara was planning. It wasn’t something huge but it was something that had a lot of planning put into it.

\---

The Tempest touched down on Aya and the crew disembarked accordingly, to all but two of the crew they were here for some of the decorations. But to Sara and Scott there was something else there, the stall that Sara found in the back of the market, behind all of the other busy ones so it couldn’t be seen. This stall made rings and jewellery, so when she found it, she knew what she was getting her for Christmas.

Since Scott wasn’t yet fit for duty, only normal life, he had a lot of time on his hands, enough time to get familiar with the plan that Sara had provided him with. Thanks to Sam, Sara knew Suvi’s ring size and through knowing her well she also knew what kind of things she liked.

Scott was tasked with getting her the ring made with the details and the designs that he had been given, and it was Sara’s job to make sure that Suvi didn’t see him. When it came to shopping, it was actually rather easy for Suvi to get lost in it all and not really pay attention, leaving Sara with not much to do at all.

She held Suvi’s hand in her own and tugged her off to the side so that they could start getting their decorations. The first stall of call was the tree, the ones on Aya were a little thicker and taller than the ones on earth but they were the right shape for the tree and the closest she could find. The look on Suvi’s face when she realized that they were getting one told Sara all she needed to know, that it was all going to be worth it.

Then there was the lights, for people as advanced as the Angara they had rather traditional lights. But Sara wasn’t going to complain, she liked these things the old way.to her, there was nothing like the good old way of doing Christmas.

That took them to lunch, the rest of the crew eat at the main bar and cafe in the center, but Sara being the over the top one as usual took them to a small cafe on the edge of a balcony overlooking the waterfalls and rolling hills of Aya’s landscape.

It was peaceful, warm and the breeze was just right. Suvi turned to Sara from the view with a smile on her face, “I’m really happy you’re doing this Sara, Christmas always was my favourite time of year in my house and this will be just like it”.

“it was my favourite too to by far, everyone was just a better version of themselves for Christmas and it was great, I loved the decorations, the atmosphere and the music, it was just the best time of year for everyone really. And I can’t think of anyone better to spend it with you and my new family”.

Her eyes began to water slightly, not just because of the moment they were in but because it made her think of her parents, and the day that the decorations went up in their house, the fifth of decision every year, the star at the top of the tree and seeing Scott running around with his friends. How she missed it sow.

She wiped the tear from her eye and looked over the edge to the view that Suvi had been looking at. But Suvi hadn’t gone back to looking at the view, she saw the tears in her eyes and like Sara didn’t like seeing Suvi upset it worked both ways.

“Sara are you okay?”, her voice was soft and caring, it was what she needed it to be.

Sara sniffled and nodded, “just remembering some things that’s all, we should get going, we still have some stalls to look around”.

\---

The rest of the team were waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp when they got back, bags or boxes in had all gotten something for themselves or maybe someone else. She didn’t expect them to have gotten each other things but she knew what Christmas did to people.

“everyone ready to go?”, one by one the crew said there yes and began their way up the ramp, leaving just Sara and Suvi at the bottom.

Sara held out in front of her and joked, “ladies first”, earning her the laugh that she was looking for. That and the sight of the beautiful woman going up the ramp in front of her.

While Suvi went off to get her normal clothes back on Sara sought out her brother who ended up being sat on the observation deck with a couple of small boxes in his hand.

“I assume these are the ring and the necklace?”.

He handed her the box and confirmed her question.

“thanks, you’re a life saver, and this didn’t happen”, she winked and left him where he was.

On the way back her room she took the chance to have a quick peak at what the ring looked like. It was just like she imagined it would be, the band was made from a gem that was found only on Aya. It had both of their names engraved on the inside and on the outside, there were three small diamond like stones each from a different corner of the cluster.

This was going to be all she had wished for and more, the way she pictured it on Suvi’s finger told her that it was true.


	41. the Christmas rush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the Tempest is alive with the Christmas spirit, rounds are made and favours are traded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> after i uploaded the last chapter i started to write another one to go in between it and the Christmas one but i totally forgot about it so here is that one and hope to have the Christmas day one up tomorrow for you all.

The ship was alive with the sound of busyness and rushing. There was nothing to be rushing about, but the crew, thanks to Sara had really gotten into the festive spirit. Suvi pulled her girlfriend from the bed with excitement, and while Sara usually argued back with something, she was more than happy to be getting involved.

The first step was the galley, the smell of cooking usually meant that Drack was cooking something up. The scent of the cooked meat was pulling them in more and more as they got closer. Not having breakfast, they were both hoping for something to get their teeth into, but only to their dismay.

Sara dropped down onto the bench and stared into the oven, “what’s on the menu Drack?”.

He pulled the door open and picked up the foil wrapped tray out of the oven, placing it down on the counter and revealing it to them, “Eiroch meat from Kadara, I kept this one a secret for a while now. This is only a small bit because I’m practicing before I do the big one in a few weeks”. He wrapped it back up and placed it back in the oven.

Disappointed the pair got back up and headed for the door, “it smells great so far, save some for us later, don’t eat it all without us”.

They moved on down the corridor towards the research room but the sound of someone’s voice put them off. They were singing, but it couldn’t be Cora they thought, she wasn’t that kind of person. The redhead peaked her head around the door so that she wouldn’t distract the clueless person inside.

To her surprise, it _was_ Cora, she was hanging some tinsel type material around the beds and singing along to herself. This put a smile on Suvi’s face, Cora was always so serious and to the point, it made her happy to see her get into the spirit of it all and having some fun.

They continued on to the research room where they expected it to be empty, and it was, but from there they could hear everything happening on the ship. PeeBee’s shouts came from the cargo bay and Lexi’s smooth voice came up from the medbay, she was helping Jaal to understand the holiday. Everyone had their little something.

PeeBee and Liam stood in the centre of the cargo bay behind a large tree they found on Aya during an expedition with some Angaran scientists. It was on the border of the habitable zone with the volcanic side of planet. Sara liked the look of it and enquired with the governor if she may take it with her. In the beginning, the crew were confused by her choice but after they had picked up the other decorations it started to make sense.

Baubles, tinsel and other decoration lookalikes covered the tree from head to toe looking more like a Christmas tree than she expected to.

“good job you two”, she shouted over the top of the rail to the smug looking pair congratulating themselves.

“yeah It looks good!”, Suvi added as they trotted off to engineering.

Through the window, they could see Gill wrenching away at panels as he always did, but in the spirit of Christmas the sound of music and singing emanated from behind the comparatively cold doors.

As they neared, the sensors opened the door and Sara popped her head around and shouted him, “Gill! You enjoying yourself in here?”.

He didn’t stop singing to himself and he didn’t stop what he was going, he just started to sing louder and got more into the song. Proof enough she thought to herself.

As she exited the room, she was greeted by Vetra who had just come up the lift, “hey guys, having fun? I just got off comms with one of my contacts, I got my hands on some of your foods for Christmas, no need to thank me”.

This earned a laugh out of Suvi, “you know I will though”. She said with a wide grin on her face. She brought her hand up to waist height and started tapping away on her omni-tool. A moment later Vetra’s own omni-tool dinged and glowed up orange. She glanced down to see what it is said and then back to Suvi.

Suvi smiled again, “A bottle of Turian safe wine for your trouble. Enjoy”. Then moved in for a hug, it’s not something that Turians normally did, but she was her friend and had previously done so before.

With their rounds of the ship done, they retreated to the galley, they still hadn’t had breakfast yet after all. But by that point the hunger had been replaced with happiness, their band of misfits had come together to something joyous, though not many of them even celebrated Christmas, they all got into the spirit and the joy.

Sara would know it from then on as the Christmas rush.


	42. actually this is for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the Tempest family enjoys their Christmas day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas everyone who celebrates it, and a happy new year to you all!
> 
> thank yo for the support you have given me on this story it means a lot to me!
> 
> :)

“Sam, can you wake them up yet”, PeeBee was getting bored of waiting for them to get up so that they could get to digging into the presents.

“I cannot do that yet, due to direct command I need to wat for another half an hour before I do that”. She huffed for a second time.

“for the two most excited they are taking their time”, she thought to herself, though she understood not wanting to be prematurely awoken, getting woken up by something unexpected always left her cranky.

Using one of the rails in the escape pod she pulled herself up and left, off to find anyone up she could talk to.

\---

 The half hour passed and before she knew it, Sara was being woken by both the shaking of her wrist by Sam and the rest of her body by the beautiful redhead to her right.

“come on Sara get up I’m waiting to see my presents. Everyone else is waiting too”.

She just groaned, trying to get as much more time as she could but she knew it wouldn’t be long. She was almost tempted to send her on her way by herself, up until Sam came through on the private channel to remind her of something.

“Sara, you requested that I remind you of the necklace that you got for Suvi”, her eyes shot open at the sound of it, “Shit! The necklace!” she shouted in her mind. This is why she got it in the first place.

She rolled over and stared into the waiting eyes of her girlfriend above her, reached her head up to kiss and her smiled, “lets go”.

Suvi sprung from the bed and took off, Sara on the other hand followed slower, and even took a detour to the galley for some coffee for her and some tea for Suvi.

When she reached the cargo bay everyone was there already, smiling and talking among themselves, she almost felt bad for interrupting them.

“let’s get this started”, she stepped over to Suvi and handed her the cup of tea in her hand.

PeeBee, now ready to go announced, “pathfinder first, open your presents”.

Sara grinned, “don’t be absurd, everyone else goes first, I’m last”. She expected PeeBee to fight her back, but no, she got up made for the tree and grabbed her presents. Bringing them back to the middle she got stuck in.

“ok this one is from Gill, I wonder what this could be”, she ripped off the paper and looked at it in her hand, it looked like a headset that went over one of her eyes.

She looked over to the engineer and tilted her head like a puppy, he chuckled spoke up, “I took what you told me about your remnant scanner and made It smaller, now when you wear that all rem tech that shows up in the vicinity will glow” he stated victoriously.

Her lips moved to form a silent O shape, “that’s really smart thanks Gill”. She put it down beside her and picked up the next box and read the label.

“alright this ones from Cora”, based on the shape she already had a good idea, but she wasn’t going to let _her_ know that, she pulled the item out of the box and held it up, she still had a smile on her face, because actually she had been needing one of these.

She looked at Cora for the context, she was happy to oblige, “a magnetized mug so you can leave it anywhere. I’m always finding other peoples but I haven’t found one for you yet so it got you one two”.

PeeBee was still smiling, again she had been needing one of these, “thanks Cora, I really needed one of these”.

She placed it down next to her headset.

Not seeing any others, she thought that was it and got a bit upset about it, “nobody else get me anything?”.

Scott laughed and pointed to a large crate behind the tree, “open it”.

She got up and tried to move it, but it wouldn’t budge, she struggled for a bit before Scott started to feel sorry for her and moved it with his biotics, “you could have just done that. Now open it”.

She popped the two clamps one edge and flipped the lid off on the other side. In the box was a deactivated Remnant assembler with the legs crossed up to the top bit.

Sara jumped in, “this is from the rest of us, we know what you can do with an observer so I wanted to see what you could with this thing, just make sure that you change the code before you turn it back on please”.

PeeBee jumped up and down on the spot before darting to Sara for a hug and nearly spilling her coffee, “OH MY GOD THANK YOU ALL THIS IS AMAZING”.

She went and sat back down next to the crate, “who’s next?”.

\---

One by one they went through and opened their presents until there was just Sara and Suvi left to open theirs.

Sara turned to her and put her hand on her shoulder, “ladies first”, she teased.

Suvi’s face flushed pink as Sara floated her a small number of boxes. Suvi had told everyone not to bother with the presents. Well she didn’t say not to bother but she did say that she was more in it for the fun than she was for the presents but some of them get her one.

“this one is from Scott, it was small and didn’t feel like It was in a package, just something wrapped in the paper. She pulled it off to reveal a small clothes pin. It had two s’ intertwined around each other. One of her each of her and Sara’s initials.

She walked over and pulled her into a hug, “thanks Scott its great”.

“don’t worry about it, it was nothing”.

Then, Sara hander her a square box, wrapped nicely wrapped with Christmas themed paper. It looked nearly too nice to rip off, but she did anyway. She lifted off the lid and the first thing she saw was a fluffy pyjama top with a pink heart over the centre, she pulled it out to inspect it when she noticed that there was a pair of fluffy bottoms with them as well. She was going to sleep well tonight.

She melted there and then. Leaning over she took Sara into a slow, fully kiss and smiled as she pulled back, “thanks babe, these are going to be so comfy”.

“now only yours left, get to it” she teased her.

Sara whispered under her breath as she picked up her couple presents from the floor, “only if you knew”.

The smallest was first, it was another pin, but this one had the letters ‘pf’ on it for Pathfinder, it was simple, but it was nice.

Now a smile grew on her face, wider than she might have ever had before. She grabbed the other box from the floor and began to open as she turned to Suvi, “you have to know that not all of these are for me”, she lifted the lid and slowly began to lift the necklace out of the box, making sure to keep her eyes on the one person that mattered in that moment.

“this is actually for you…”.

At first, she didn’t get it, what did she mean that it was for her, what do you mean its for me? Slowly, the pieces started to fit into place, keeping her away from Scott back on Aya, letting her go first and talking with Scott afterwards, the sudden change in attitude when they were getting up. It all made sense now, though that didn’t do anything for her hiding her red face.

She held out her hand to inspect the necklace now in front of her, “Sara…you didn’t have to”, her voice was shaky, shy and weak trying her best to not burs into tears there and then. But to no avail, a tear still broke free from her eyes. “it’s…it’s beautiful, thank you”.

Still lightly sobbing she turned around and lifted the little tuft of hair around the back of her neck so that Sara could put it on for her, she could see Sara’s hands come over her head and back to either side. The necklace contacted her skin, cold and sharp, but not for long, soon she felt the love and care that had gone into it getting where it was right now.

From behind Suvi’s head Sara shot a look to the rest of the crew expecting a fed up look, but that’s not what she saw, no she saw each and everyone of them smiling and some even teary eyed themselves. Her heart ached, not from sadness but because she was surrounded by love and friendship along with her brother in the same room, thought lost for good.

Sara joined her girlfriend in the sobbing, she pulled her into her embrace and rested her head on Suvi’s shoulder after pecking her on the cheek. “all of this is for you, its always been for you”.

She turned to the rest of her team, “thank you everyone for this, this is amazing, and I’m happy that your all here to experience this with me, especially you Scott, just like old times”.

He repeated her, “just like old times”.

He then looked to the rest of the team, “I think we should give them some space. And Drack still has dinner to cook, I can’t wait”.

Slowly, everyone gathered their presents and filtered back out of the cargo bay back to their own spaces.

\---

“Sara, Drack has called you to the cargo bay for dinner”

Suvi looked over to Sara, half asleep on her shoulder, “come on sleepy, foods ready”. Instantly, Sara’s eyes opened and she lifted her head, “did someone say food?”. Suvi giggled, “yes, food is ready, lets go”.

She clambered up from underneath Sara’s weight and puller her off the couch, towards the door.

Everyone else was already there with the crates arranged into a long table and benches down both sides.

They sat down at the table and waited for Drack to share it all out between them all, it all looked so good, like it was done to perfection.

“I knew it smelled good”, she was about to pick up her fork until she was interrupted by Cora shouting down to the table, “I think Sara should say a few words before we start as she organized this, and she’s the pathfinder”.

PeeBee let out a grown but was quickly quietened back down by Lexi next to her. “I think it’s a great idea” she added on.

She wasn’t planning on down a speech but it didn’t stop her from coming up with one the night before. She stood up and moved to the end of the table so that she was looking down its length, “well, to begin its been a hell of a year hasn’t it. Saving a planet from radiation, starting the only surviving outpost we have, making first contact with the Angara, and kicking the Archon’s ass at the same time. But this isn’t just about us a whole, all of us have something that they are happy about being here. For most of you it might be your personal reasons, but after the disaster of a start that I had, my main reason here today is this woman”, she lifted her hand and pointed to Suvi, “you have all done something for me and I have done something for all of you, but this woman has been my saving grace, without Suvi I don’t know where I would be. I am thankful for all of you, but her most of all”.

“so, a cheers to friends, family and love, for we all have something we are proud of, and we all have more that we want to complete. To an amazing year and to a another one”. She raised her glass to the cheering and shouts of ‘here here’.

Together, they celebrated late into the night, with not a care in the galaxy what anyone else thought. they were family, and this was their Christmas to enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't know when i might get the next chapter out. i am going to enjoy what i get and the probably get back to this when i think i have the time before the new year.


	43. i don't answer to you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tann, Kesh and Kandros don't approve, but they aren't the ones who matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> like usual this chapter could have been left out but any chance to see Tann get put down is one that i am going to take.

New years on the Tempest wasn’t as bug of a deal as Christmas was, they needed to get back to work, the galaxy wasn’t waiting for them to be done with celebrating. Life was back to normal, Sara was on the bridge, Suvi was in her chair and Scott was helping Cora with tactical work.

“Kallo, how long until we get to the Nexus”, she didn’t look away from the window in front of her.

“A couple of hours” her replied happily.

“alright call me when we get there”.

“sure thing”.

She turned away and left the bridge, heading for the comm table. As she neared the bottom of the ramp, she stopped momentarily to straighten up her hoody before she went to the top.

She approached the console and pressed a button on the screen. On the far end of the table Dr Aridana’s hologram appeared.

“Ah Ryder there you are, after you meat with Tann and Addison come and swing by the tech labs, we have something important that we need to share with you”.

 “too important to tell me right now?”.

“yes, it is going to be critical to your mission, but you didn’t hear it from me”.

Then as quickly as she appeared, she was gone.

\---

Like always, Sara got to the meeting, but upon walking into the room she could tell that something wasn’t right. Usually the atmosphere in Tann’s office is an irritated one but this time it was as thick as butter in a freezer.

Heading up the walkway she could hear Tann talking with Kesh and Kandros about what happened with the Archon, it wasn’t 2 weeks old and they were still talking about it.

“You need to be happy with what happened, she saved your entire species” she hear Kesh raise her voice.

“it doesn’t matter If they were Salarians, she shouldn’t have risked all of those lives to get something that we don’t know about” he challenged in his flat voice.

“here we go again” she mumbled to herself as she got to the top of the ramp, walking over she looked Tann in the eye, “in that case, the next time Salarians need saving I’ll leave them to die where they are” she remarked before looking to the rest at the table.

“we appreciate what you did, but don’t see what we gained from provoking the Archon like this” Kandros interjected

“we have the location of the control center of the vault network, we turn it back on and we make all of the other connected vaults restart and make the planets viable for us”.

“can we be sure though, this is all alien science and we have no Data” came Tann’s immediate reply.

“do any of you have a better idea?”, she looked around at them, none of them seemed eager to add anything, “thought as much”.

Kandros, after a second of thinking jumped in, “we don’t have the people to defend it against a Kett attack and the ones that we do won’t be equipped for it”.

she had been here for 10 minutes and was getting sick of her plan being pulled apart by the people who didn’t know what they were talking about.

“the Archon is trying to exalt the entire cluster and have already managed to exalt a Krogan, a fight is coming either way, would you rather it be Meridian or would you rather it be the Nexus and your own back garden?”.

“Then there is this Sam of yours, we took a chance letting AI get involved and I don’t like _how much_ it has been involved. I appreciate what you did but I cannot support your plan”.

“then I will”, Raeka stood atop the Ramp on one side of the room

“and so I will I” she was joined by Sarissa, Asari pathfinder

Tann moved from facing the hologram in the middle of the table to the two other pathfinders, “I applaud the gesture, but you answer to me, I hope you understand”.

Sara found this rather amusing, she liked seeing Tann’s arrogance being challenged and snorted at the comment. Pulling the attention of the room, “I don’t answer to you Tann, I do what you ask me to but I do not answer to you”.

“don’t challenge me Ryder”.

“what are you going to do Tann? You have no plan, no way of making anything viable, and I am the only one of us to get anything done, you need me Tann, you won’t do anything, and neither will any of you. I expected better from you both”. Now her voice was raised, if one more person tried to make themselves better than her then she was about to lose it.

“I am going to follow this plan whether you like it or not and there is nothing you can do to stop me”. With that she turned and left, gesturing the other two pathfinders to follow on with her.

Outside she stood with Raeka and Sarissa, “thanks for backing me up there, I need to go and see Dr Aridana right now, tell me if you need anything”.

\---

The doors to the science lab split open as she approached them, she expected to see just the scientists but found Sarissa and Raeka already there.

“what are you guys doing here?”.

Raeka turned to Dr Aridana who was sat at her chair, “we’re helping with the tech that’s going to help you get to Meridian, it’s called Ghost Storm and it makes your signal invisible on the scanners so that we can make ourselves decoys and draw some of the Kett away”.

“but you’ll have to do the research and install it before we can do it”. Aridana added

She was happy that someone else for once actually had a plan, “this is good, but we didn’t talk about this”.

“talk about what, we’ve been doing calculations all day”.

\---

Suvi stood up from her chair and stretched out her arms to her sides, after a long day of work, she was ready to have a break before she got the rest done for the day.

“Sam, where’s Sara?”.

“Sara is currently in the tech lab; would you like me to tell her that you are on your way?”.

“yes, thanks”.

‘What could she be doing in the tech lab? She normally spends her time in the armory’ she thought to herself as she made the short walk to the lab.

As she entered the lab, the lights were off and, in the corner, Sara’s face was lit by the orange glow of the panel she was working at.

“Sara?” she called.

Her head lifted from her focus and a smile grew on her face as she laid eyes on the redhead.

“come in”, she called back.

She was careful to not trip over or kick anything on her way over.

“what brings you into this little corner of the ship?”.

“I’m on break for a while so I came a lookin, what you working on?”.

“Just a little something to help us get past the Kett at Meridian”.

“oh? How does that work?”.

“it blocks our signal and then allows other ships to broadcast the return so it draws them away from us”.

“so walking in without being seen?”.

“exactly”.


	44. so this isn't even Meridian?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the team reach a hurdle and someone has an apology to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so , uh, it's been a while hasn't it? for a while i didn't feel like writing and then even when i did i couldn't focus for more than 5 minutes at a time but i got there eventually. i don't know when the next chapter is going to be out because procrastination king but i do want to get it done so that i can move on to some of the other things i want to do. 
> 
> thanks for reading and i hope that you enjoy it. :)

Sara turned to the other two of her team, “is everyone alright?”.

PeeBee scoffs back sarcastically, “duh”.

Jaal took a more normal approach, “I’m fine”.

Sara turned on the spot, looking for the right way to go, “alright let’s get going, we need to hurry if we’re going to stop the archon”.

She took off down the ramp in front of her to the close door in front of her, “Sam can you get this door open?”.

“one moment”.

The floor below them rumbled as the door parted to reveal the dead end at the end of the corridor. Nearing the end, the console and floor started looking familiar, “oh, it’s a gravity well”. 

She took a step over and placed her hand over the console, she thought it was just going to open the well but what happened instead was the wall opened to reveal a window, what she saw left her awestruck.

“is that…is that meridian?”, PeeBee asked, just as confused as Sara was.

Before them lay what looked like a city, sprawled over miles and miles of ground. Towers spiralling high into the endless sea of space. Chasms and falls that seemed to go forever.

\---

The team stood around a console as Sam looked through for something useful, “There is only a log on this console, would you like me to read it”.

Sara let out a long sigh, she thought they were close, but they were getting nowhere, “read it”.

By the end of the log she was even more distressed as she had been when she had got there, “so this isn’t even meridian? How are we going to find it?”.

Before anyone could answer, her omni-tool lit up and Suvi came through, “it’ll have to wait there is a large amount of Kett heading your way, get ready”.

Sara turned around, the distinct banging of a fiends feet started getting louder and louder. As it barrelled its way to the door, but as it turned out that was the least of her worries because a second after the fiend had entered, the Archons Sword waltzed through the door.

PeeBee dropped behind a nearby wall and shouted to Sara, “Now might be a good time to use the new armour we made you!”.

\---

Sara made her way into the medbay and immediately met with Suvi jumping from her chair with a smile on her face and jumping her direction, “Sara!”.

She wrapped her arms around her and pulled her in, “Are you ok?”.

Sara chuckled, “Of course I’m ok, why wouldn’t I be?”.

Suvi tilted her head to the side, like a confused dog, “because you just had to fight the Archon’s sword, a fiend and a destroyer at the same time, you must be tired at least”.

Sara chuckled again as she unravelled herself from Suvi’s arms, “yes, I’m tired, and I’m looking forward to spending some time in bed”, turning and flashing a wink at her, making her turn red.

She dropped herself on the bed and turned to Lexi who was still waiting get on with the physical and gestured to her to begin, “We need a way to find meridian though, any ideas?”.

Suvi raised her hand to her chin, thinking a moment before she gave in, “Not right now but give me some time and I might be able to come up with something”.

\---

“Sam, can you call the crew to the holodeck for me please”.

“yes pathfinder”.

One by one the crew all filtered up the ramps either side to the table and looking to Sara quizzically until everyone was there, “so, what’s up”.

A grin grew on her face as she let the cat out of the bag, “guess who just got an apology from Tann and Kandros and was told was right”.

Cora looked more shocked than anyone else, “He didn’t…”.

The smile on her face only got bigger, “Yes he did, and also is giving us all the resources we’d need to take the next steps our plan, when we figure out what those are”.

PeeBee’s voice pulled Sara’s attention to the other side of the desk, “speaking of the next steps, what are the next steps?”.

“We still need to figure it out, but I’ll come up with something eventually”, Suvi raised, saving Sara from having to explain, she was so thankful for Suvi being as smart as she is because eventually, she would actually have a solution.

“that’s it for now guys, PeeBee and Jaal get some rest, everyone else get one with what it was that you were doing”. The crew turned and left, leaving Sara and Suvi stood at the desk.

She turned to the redhead around the table and flashed her a smile, “I need to go and get some rest, I take it your going to be going over the readings from Khi Tasira won’t you, I know that science is where the fun is”.

“you know will, but I also won’t be too long before joining you in bed”, she flashed her a wink and walked from the table, back to her seat on the bridge leaving Sara along at the table wishing for her bed.


	45. i think i got it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara listens to some classics and Suvi has an epiphany.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're slowly getting there aren't we? not too long now but i'm having a har time deciding what ii want to do with the end of the game story so it might take a while for me to get it out to you.
> 
> But i hope you have been enjoying the story so far and hope you keep reading :)

As Sara stirred in the early hours of the morning, it was hard to get over how sore she was from head to toe, it had been two days since they had found Khi Tasira and they had yet to come up with anything.

While they crew had been enjoying the time they had now while they were figuring it out, the stress of the past few days were getting to them and everyone was just that little more grumpy, not to mention how sore the ground team were from the battering they had taken.

Looking to her side to see the peaceful redhead with her in the bed, it reminded her that even she was getting to her wits end not being able to figure it out.

“Sam is Lexi up right now?”, she kept her voice low to avoid waking her girlfriend.

“yes pathfinder”, came the reply.

“can you ask her for a brief psych check of the crew for me? She did a run down of everyone yesterday”, again keeping her voice low as to not wake her up.

Without Sam the room fell almost silent, only the sound of her and Suvi’s combined breathing was left. While she was lost in thought, Suvi has started whistling in her sleep much to Sara’s delight, she didn’t think it was normal for someone to enjoy the random whistling of someone sleeping, but he thought everything about Suvi was cute.

Before she knew it, the whistle was stuck in her head and before long it had reminded her of an old song that she had heard on Earth at a party one time, one by one the memories flooded in and she remembered how catchy it was and how everyone got involved in singing.

Then it hit her, and she started to see it, everyone in the cargo bay singing along with each, smiles on their faces and laughs all round. With that she started to make her plan.

\---

As the hour passed Suvi began to wake up from her slumber to a quiet yet familiar sound, the sound of Sara singing in the corner, she couldn’t really hear what she was singing but she got more woken up It got clearer and clearer until she could tell what it was.

“When the day is dawnin'  
On a Texas Sunday mornin'  
How I long to be there  
With Marie who's waitin' for me there  
Ev'ry lonely city where I hang my hat  
Ain't as half as pretty as where my baby's at”

She joined in at the end of the verse, then sang the chorus together while trying not to laugh at the look on Sara’s face.

“Is this the way to Amarillo?  
Ev'ry night I've been huggin' my pillow  
Dreamin' dreams of Amarillo  
And sweet Marie who waits for me  
Show me the way to Amarillo  
I've been weepin' like a willow  
Cryin' over Amarillo  
And sweet Marie who waits for me”

As the song died out, Sara walked over to the bed with a goofy look on her face making Suvi laugh, “and what was that all about?”. She wrapped one of her arms around Sara’s neck and pulled her in for a good morning kiss while waiting for her response.

Sara pulled back and sat down on the bed with Suvi’s arm still around her, “I figured we needed something to cheer us up and get us out of this dip we’ve found ourselves in”. she kissed her back and lied back on the bed.

Suvi now shared the goofy look on her face as Sara did, but for a different reason, because she found Sara’s moments of antics adorable, “I can understand that but I mean why that song, it’s so old”. That got a giggle out of Sara.

“Well I woke up about an hour before you and your whistling reminded me of an old song that I heard once so I’ve been listening to the old, old ones…And I have an idea”.

Suvi raised an eyebrow, if she had an idea, it was either incredible or incredibly bad, “a, my whistling? And b, go on”.

Sara laughed again, “yeah, sometimes you whistle in your sleep, I think it’s cute”, then pulled her in for another kiss, “and I think we need a way to get out of this rut, I don’t like not being to figure things out, listening to music always did make me remember things, it might help me put two and two together”.

Suvi couldn’t fault the logic, she was no psychologist but she knew that there was something to it, she was going to answer when she was interrupted by the rumbling of Sara’s stomach, eliciting a giggle, “let’s go talk about this over breakfast, I haven’t eaten yet”.

She turned and started walking over the door, “you’ve been awake for an hour but you haven’t eaten yet?”.

“I was listening to your whistling”, she said as she laughed to herself.

\---

The pair sat at the table and started getting down some food, Sara was hounding down a bowl of cereal while Suvi, with slightly more Self-control, got to work on her toast. While she ate, she was lost in thought, how was she going to find Meridian in the mess that was the Helius cluster.

But as suddenly as she had found herself lost in thought, she was pulled back out by Sara in a coughing fit, likely over some milk that went down the wrong way. But out of the corner of her eye she could see the cereal in Sara’s bowl still being moved around like ships on a wave.

“like ships on a wave”, she exclaimed, earning an odd look from Sara who was only now getting over the coughing fit she’s been In.

“what?”, she replied, not understanding the sudden outburst.

“picture Meridian as a ship adrift at sea, the ocean carries the ship somewhere else using currents, Meridian is a ship and the Scourge is the ocean which carried it off somewhere else!”, puling Sara into an embrace she tried to clarify what she was trying to get across, “I think I know how we can find Meridian!”.

Sara opened her mouth but no words came out, no matter how hard she tried the words stayed in, until she could stutter it out, “I…what…how can…how did you just figure that out, out of the blue?”.

Suvi pointed the bowl that was still on the table, “when you knocked the table, the milk moved the cereal like the sea and I just saw it!”.

Sara grabbed Suvi’s arms and shook them lightly, “Suvi, do you know what this means?”. She grabbed her by the arms and shook her lightly before pulling her off the seat, “Come on, let’s get started!”.

Getting pulled along by Sara was never a bad thing, but she hadn’t been awake long enough to even think about getting started, but Sara’s enthusiasm was hard to ignore.


	46. i have you now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the team head to the co-ordinates of Meridian but get stopped on their tracks, Sara seems to be losing it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know it has been a long time since i released anything but i have been busy and stressed and kind of uninspired to write and that is likely to be the same in future if not worse. 
> 
> also a quick disclaimer, from this point on the story is going to lose all resemblance to something believable, if anyone remembers Sara's outbursts with her biotics is going to see where this is going.

as Sara was lying in her bed going through her emails, her wrist began to vibrate with her alarm, truth be told she should be sleeping but with everything that was going on she was finding it hard to sleep. While it was mid-morning, the fact that she spent a lot of time last night working it was like waking up at 6AM. She tapped her wrist to turn of the alarm and swung her legs out of bed, she needed something to eat before she did anything.

Stepping onto the bridge with her cereal in hand, she heard Suvi and Kallo talking, “that’s the last probe in place now” said the Scot. Sara couldn’t help but look down at her bowl and laugh at the memory of what had happened to give her the idea.

She walked up behind Suvi’s chair and looked down on her fiery hair, “is that everything ready then?”. Suvi jumped in her seat, nearly hitting Sara’s bowl out of her hand “Sara! I didn’t hear you come in!”. she had to try an suppress the laugh as she gave the blonde a pout. “Yes everything is ready, we just need to wait for the data to come in”.

Sara stepped up to her console at the front and entered the co-ordinates for the Nexus, “alright, collect the data on the way back to the Nexus and we can get to work”.

\---

“Sam, call Sara to the bridge for me please”.

“Of course Dr Anwar”.

A few minutes passed before Sara appeared through the doors in her pj’s, “what’s up?”.

“I think we have meridians location”.

The look on Sara’s face went from curious to deadly serious, “say that again”.

Suvi and Kallo exchanged confused looks, “um, we think we found Meridian?”.

“Head there now and call everyone to the bridge when we get there, Kallo when you’re”. She turned to the door and took of out of the room. The pair exchanged looks again and went on with their business.

Sara slumped in her chair with a huff, it was getting serious now, no more sitting around waiting for something to happen, no more waiting for someone to make a move and no more fighting with Nexus leadership for permission to do something. This was happening and it was happening soon.

After typing out and sending a number of emails too Kandros and the science team, she knew she needed get some proper clothes on before they arrived. She swapped her bottoms for her favourite baggy cargo’s and her top for her long sleeved short with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows.

\---

As she walked through the doors to the bridge, the Tempest came an abrupt stop, sending Sara to the floor. She landed on her arm in a weird position and sat there for a moment holding it still. She looked out of the front of the bridge but there was a massive planet in front of them.

“Sam. What was that?”. He didn’t say anything, leaving the room in an eerie silence, but a moment later an image appeared on Suvi’s terminal.

“Kett ships, and lots of ‘em, on the other side of the planet”. Suvi turned from the image to Sara who was still sitting on the floor with her arm in her hand, “Oh! Are you ok?”.

“I’ve felt better honestly”, she picked herself up and moved to her console at the front. “Kallo, how close can we get without being noticed?”.

“not close enough I’m afraid, we would have to be cloaked to get anywhere close and we don’t have any space to put a cloak device big enough for the whole ship…Sorry”.

Sara let out a loud sigh, “can we get close enough to see what kind of ships are there at least?”.

The Salarian moved his focus from his controls to Sara wearily, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, I don’t want to take this ship anywhere near them without some kind of protection”.

The room fell silent, nobody not really knowing what to say.

“Pathfinder, I have detected signs of the Archon’s flagship being in the fleet”, Sam’s voice echoed in her mind, and she turned and left the bridge muttering to herself, “I have you now”.


	47. somethings not right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suvi thinks there's something not quite right with Sara and as usual Sam is there to spill the beans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry to anyone who was actually waiting for this chapter to come out, i didn't have any motivation for this and it took a long time to even do this short chapter. 
> 
> i am however, extremely thankful to all of the people who have read this and the people who come back for the new chapters if there is anyone who does this. 
> 
> i don't know how long it is going to be until you get the next chapter or if you are going to get one at all, real life is sneaking up on me and soon ill be working in the real world, sometimes life just gets in the way of things. 
> 
> thanks all :)

Lexi dropped herself into her chair with her cup of tea and datapad, everyone should be asleep, she thought to herself, though she knew better than to make predictions like that. She was in for a long night of reading, being so close to fighting the Archon she wanted to make sure that everyone was in good condition both, physically and mentally, though she was worried about a particular pathfinder. Physically she was in great shape but something wasn’t quite right in her head.

\---

“Ryder to go to sleep, its late enough as it is!”.

She let out a yawn, “Yes mother”, and pulled the covers over herself, “But only if you don’t take too long to join me” she teased, smirking at the redhead in the doorway making her chuckle lightly.

“I won’t be too long, I just need to talk to Lexi about something, and you’d better be asleep when I get back”. She allowed herself to be the one smirking now. She backed away from the door and pointed her eyes upwards, “Sam, is Lexi still up?”.

“yes doctor Anwar, Lexi is currently in the medbay”.

“can you tell her I need to talk for a minute?”.

“yes, doctor Anwar”.

Normally Suvi wasn’t this worried about Sara because, well, its Sara and she’s always going to be getting herself into some kind of danger one way or another but when she sits and thinks about it, she always gets the same memory, “I’ve got you now”. What did she mean? What was she going to do? She knew Suvi wanted she wanted to beat the Archon but it wasn’t like her to talk like this. She felt her stomach knot every time she thought about it.

Walking into the medbay, Lexi was already waiting for her to sit down. “Hey Suvi, what’s the matter”.

She let out a long sigh and sat with her head in her hands for a moment, then whispered, “I’m worried about Sara, something doesn’t feel right”.

“What do you mean something doesn’t feel right?”. Nothing seemed off to her, yes, she was constantly dealing with the stresses of being the Pathfinder but nothing other than that and her previous bout with PTSD she seemed as well as she could be.

Suvi lifted her head from her hands and looked at Lexi, “sometimes she doesn’t seem like the same Person, she gets angrier a lot easier than she did before and she get angry more than she used to”.

Lexi was caught by surprise, it wasn’t like Sara to get mad a lot of the time, she got along with everyone she was level-headed, but then it hit her, “Suvi do you remember what happened at the Kett base on Eos?

she winced, “yeah I remember”.

Lexi spoke up again, “I think you should talk to her, it’s entirely possible that she doesn’t even know that she’s doing it”.

“then I’ll have to wait until tomorrow she should be asleep by now”, she let out another sigh and stood from the bed, “thanks Lex, I’ll tell you how it goes tomorrow.

As the doors closed and the room went back to silence, Lexi went back to her datapad, typing away faster than she had been.

\---

the following morning, Suvi woke up to an empty bed and a quiet ship, she pulled herself from the bed and into the galley for her morning tea, “Sam? Where is everyone?”.

She began preparing her tea while she waited for Sam to reply, “Most of the crew is currently off the ship, Sara and Cora are in a meeting with Director Tann, planning on how they are going to get into Meridian”.

She picked up her tea and started to head to the bridge, “did she tell you how long they were going to be there?”.

“They did not but Sara told me a while ago that it shouldn’t be too long now”.

Suvi sat down in her chair on the bridge and looked out over the docking area, it was a lot busier than it used to be with all the outposts and everything. She took a sip from her cup as she got herself comfortable, “Sam, do you think you could help me with something?”.

“I will help if I can doctor”.

“Did you hear the talk I had with Lex last night Sam?”, she took another sip of her tea and picked up a datapad to her right.

“I did doctor Anwar what is it that you wanted to ask?”.

“I wanted to know if you knew something that might be causing her to be like this, you can read her mind so you might know something we don’t”.

For a minute Sam said nothing, on one hand it made Suvi feel unnerved but on the other hand she knew it was a sign that what she had said was right.

“It is correct that there are some things that Sara is yet to tell anyone, she has instructed me to not tell anyone, she will tell you when the time is right”.

Suvi scrunched up her face, “what do you mean she’ll tell me when the time is right?! Now should be as good a time as any”. What was so secret that she hadn’t even told _her_ yet.

Before she could say anything else Kallo’s panel sounded with the alert that the cargo door had just been opened, she jumped from her chair and bolted to the cargo bay, someone had some explaining to do.

 

 


End file.
